


a^ 






.^'- ":>•. 



.>■= % 



,00, 



a''' 



/. ' : .: V ^ x'f 



^' "^ 



■^^- V*' 



s'^-.^,L^,>.^ 



,*^'-^ 






'•'/- K 


■^: 


x<>^.^ 


•^../V 








if 





d- i-^^ 




'^^^ 


» . , 


" ,/ 


> 














% 


y^" 


, 


.#' 


. s ^ .'A 















^' ^^ 


% 




"^^ ,^>^' 






r^^ 








'>,.'! :^- V >\- 


■>• 




















---,/-<,, '•« 


' ,A^ 





^^■^ •% 






% € 


%^ 










s\ ,r> 






■,\^-' 








0^ 










* .0 S ^ < ^^ 




x^°. 








\ ^ 


'" 






\ 


V 


^-^.^'' ., 






'Cr> 


,.^^' 


"'V 












•-• '"''■i/-^- 


. ^^ -vy- 








'^t .^ 


<^ ^ * 


ft 








< * 4 <^ 


"^j 


. \. 


-^ ^^ 






-i" 


'^J- 


v^V - 


"-oo^ 










^ , ' h . 








.0^ 



"/i. ' ■' ^^ . - ' ^> . '^ 



// o 



.O^^^.-C; 









JOHN HANCOCK 
THE PICTURESQUE PATRIOT 



BV LORENZO SEARS, L.H.D. 

The History of Oratory from the Age of Pericles 
TO THE Present Time 

The Occasional Address; Its Composition and Lit- 
erature. A Study in Demonstrative Oratory 

Principles and Methods of Literary Criticism 

American Literature in the Colonial and National 
Periods 

Seven Natural Laws of Literary Composition 

Makers of American Literature 

Wendell Phillips, Orator and Agitator 

John Hancock, the Picturesque Patriot 




A.W,Elson&Co„Boo 



JOHN HANCOCK 

THE PICTURESQUE PATRIOT 



BY 

LORENZO SEARS 

AUTHOR OF **THE HISTORY OF ORATORY,'* 

"AMERICAN LITERATURE,** ** WENDELL 

PHILLIPS,** ETC. 



" Greatly favored and blessed of Providence will you 
be if you should in your lifetime be known for what 
you are.** —Walter Savage Landok. 



BOSTON 

LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY 

1912 



t SdZ 



Copyright, igi2y 
By Little, Brown, and Company. 



All rights reserved. 
Published, October, 191 2. 



^PrtntfM 
\. J. Pasehill <fe Co., Boston, U. S. A. 



/ 



GI.A3a7191 



yj 



TO 

A. H. S. 



il 



JOHN HANCOCK 

From the Painting by John Singleton Copley 

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston 



PREFACE 

John Hancock's famous signature has made 
him more widely known than most other and later 
signers of the Declaration of Independence. Yet 
less is commonly known about him than concern- 
ing other prominent patriots of the Revolution. 
He was active and conspicuous in his time ; but he 
left few materials for a biography, and these for 
the most part in remote hiding places. John 
Adams once remarked, "The Life of John Han- 
cock will not ever be written." Twenty years later, 
when political disagreements were overlooked, 
Adams wrote, " If I had the forces I should be 
glad to write a volume of Mr. Hancock's life, 
character, and generous nature." 

One hundred and three years had passed after 
the death of its first Governor, in 1793, when the 
Commonwealth of Massachusetts dedicated a mon- 
ument to his memory in the old Granary Burying 
Ground near Boston Common. On this occasion 
Governor Wolcott remarked with regret upon the 
neglect which had allowed the grave of a man who 
played so large a part in the Revolutionary period 
to remain unmarked by any enduring monument. 
In editing letters from Hancock's Letter-Book, 
extending over a period of twenty years of com- 
mercial activity, Abram English Brown assigned 



^ 



viii Preface 

among reasons why Hancock's biography had 
never been written : " He left no descendants. 
His numerous relatives received and enjoyed his 
great wealth; but neither pride nor gratitude in- 
cited them to the work of writing the life of their 
benefactor. His unremitting toils and sacrifices 
for the public good may have been so far over- 
shadowed by his unaccountable management of 
the treasury of Harvard College as to deter any 
man of that institution from undertaking the work. 
It is to be hoped that some pen is now at work 
upon an adequate history of John Hancock which 
the public will welcome before many years." 

Among the Chamberlain manuscripts in the Bos- 
ton Public Library is a newspaper clipping, dated 
February ii, 1884, which states that materials for 
a biography were once collected, but later pur- 
chased for a thousand dollars and suppressed; a 
statement which, if true, adds interest to the par- 
ticulars of a career that can now be well understood 
from authentic sources. 

Prominent as Hancock was in his day and gen- 
eration, his services to his own State and to the 
country were of a nature to be overshadowed by 
more noticeable exploits and achievements, mili- 
tary and civil ; and the accounts of his doings are 
often incidental and fragmentary in the records of 
the period. 

Hancock has been called picturesque not as 
qualifying his patriotism, but as recognizing a fea- 
ture which has its own interest in a movement that 



Preface ix 

generally lacked this element. Yet he was more 
than a bit of color in a sombre landscape. He 
was the earliest considerable sufferer from com- 
mercial oppression ; the first aristocrat of Boston 
to join a party which had little property to lose ; 
one of the two whom royal displeasure excluded 
from pardon ; often chairman of liberty meetings ; 
a member of the Great and General Court ; deputy 
to the Provincial Congresses and presiding officer ; 
also deputy to the Continental Congress and for 
two and a half years its President; the first Gov- 
ernor of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and 
ten times re-elected. His large contributions to the 
Revolutionary cause ; his skilful guidance of dis- 
cordant statesmen into agreement in a critical 
time ; his efficient service in retaining the French 
good-will when its threatened loss would have en- 
tailed eventual defeat at Yorktown ; his influence 
in securing the ratification of the Constitution by 
Massachusetts, and in consequence by a majority 
of the States, — all these services and responsi- 
bilities together made him a man to be reckoned 
with in a troubled period. Also to be courted and 
flattered. If he was vain, he had contributors to 
his vanity ; if he loved popularity, he paid a good 
price for it ; if he was fond of display, he could 
afford it out of his own purse ; if he neglected the 
affairs of a needy college in the pressure of na- 
tional business, he also neglected his own, receiv- 
ing no compensation as other presidents did. He 
was human but self-respecting ; courtly and cour- 



X Preface 

teous; an aristocrat with sympathies for common 
people ; benevolent and hospitable ; a man for his 
time without whom the results of what at first was 
an unpopular struggle might have been otherwise 
than they finally were. He at least deserves recog- 
nition in a day when deeds can be seen in their true 
relations, and the lives of their doers in proper 
perspective. 

Repetition of the familiar story of the American 
Revolution has been avoided as far as possible, 
those phases only being noted with which Han- 
cock was directly associated. More attention has 
been given to his surroundings, particularly in the 
years before he entered upon pubhc Hfe, in order 
to show what share his environment may have had 
in shaping his future career. 

Grateful acknowledgments are due to the libra- 
rians of the Public Library, the John Hay Library, 
and the Historical Society in Providence for special 
privileges ; for the same in the Public Library of 
Boston, in the New England Historic and Genea- 
logical Society's Library ; among the manuscript 
Archives of Harvard University, the Hancock 
manuscripts in the Archives of Massachusetts at 
the State House, and the valuable collection of 
letters in the possession of WilHam P. Greenough, 
Esq., of Boston. To his classmate, S. Arthur 
Bent, Esq., of Boston, the author is indebted for 
many helpful courtesies, and to several authors, 
correspondents, and friends for various favors. 

Providence, April, 191 2. 



CONTENTS 

CHAPTER FAGB 

I. An Insurgent Town . . . . i 

II. Home and School 12 

in. In Harvard College .... 26 

IV. Boston and Business .... 44 

V. In London 68 

VI. Back to Boston 86 

VII. Growth of Hancock's Patriotism . . 99 

VIII. Entrance upon Public Life . . .119 

IX. Taxed Tea 133 

X. Provincial Congress .... 149 

XL Lovers in Lexington . . . .161 

XIL On the Road to Congress . . .169 

XIII. In the Second Continental Congress . 177 

XIV. A Wedding 199 

XV. President of Congress .... 209 

XVI. Expedition to Rhode Island . . . 249 

XVII. First Governor under the Constitution 265 

XVni. Treasurer of Harvard College . . 302 

XIX. Last Years 314 

XX. An Estimate ...... 331 

Index 345 



JOHN HANCOCK 

CHAPTER I 

AN INSURGENT TOWN 

Old Braintree on Massachusetts Bay, the birth- 
place of John Hancock, always had distinctions 
of its own in the direction of independence. Situ- 
ated on the trail from Plymouth towards Boston, 
Wessagusset became a retreat for two early adven- 
turers who were as unlike the settlers at Patuxet 
and Shawmut as these were different from the 
Cavaliers of England. The freedom which Pil- 
grim and Puritan came here to enjoy had its Hmi- 
tations, as all intruders discovered ; but the inter- 
lopers who arrived between them, in place and 
time, stretched the principle of liberty to absurd 
license and to their own consequent discomfiture. 
Yet their presence in the neighborhood and their 
respective fortunes have a prophetic interest when 
later advocates of a more reasonable freedom are 
recalled, who thus gave the old town a nobler 
eminence. In an age of extremists two aliens in 
particular illustrated their own ideas of liberty ia 
ways that had something of romance and pictur- 
esqueness in the midst of a grim generation. 



:2 John Hancock 

Thomas Morton of CTmord's Inn, Gent., as he 
styled himself, was the first of these adventurers 
to settle in Wessagusset, where he became known 
as Morton of Merry Mount. The story of his 
doings there cannot be told so often as to lose its 
raciness amidst the dreary chronicles of the Bay. 
He brought with him two quahfications which his 
neighbors did not require of incomers. Such legal 
attainments as he possessed were not desired in a 
dispute that was brewing about land ownership; 
and the religious inclination he manifested was not 
agreeable, since it was according to the rites of that 
EstabHshed Church which the early settlers had 
abandoned. This might have been endured if he 
had kept good order on ''Mount Dagon" and in 
adjacent territory. Instead, he surrounded him- 
self with a gang of bond-servants left behind by 
Captain Wollaston when he took the rest of the lot 
to Virginia to serve out their indentures — a 
vagabond crew not unlike the shipload of emigrant 
adventurers which came to the Old Dominion with 
John Smith a dozen years before. With this 
motley crowd Morton, kingsman and courtier, set 
up a miniature commonwealth at Mount Wollaston 
in the autumn of 1626, not anticipating the Crom- 
wellian pattern, except that he was to be a Lord 
Protector. Aside from this, there was not much 
provision for anything beyond an Arcadian state 
of jollity. It was worse than this when he invited 
Indians and their squaws into his roistering camp. 



An Insurgent Town ^ 

and at length began to trade guns and ammunition 
with them for food and furs.^ Then it was time for 
Endicott and Standish to hew down the antler- 
crowned May-pole, burn the common house, and 
leave Morton on a secluded island to the hospitality 
of savages, which he preferred to theirs ; and finally 
to send him back to England as a warning to all who 
might mistake this land of modified liberty for a 
resort of Hcense. Morton had his revenge in 
writing a spicy account of his sojourn in the wilder- 
ness under the title of ''The New English Canaan," 
in which he extolled the country more than its 
colonists. His description of its pleasant hillocks, 
meandering streams, and abundance of game might 
have induced immigration if his portrayal of the 
new inhabitants of the land had not been more 
repelling than his account of the aborigines. Yet 
it has appealed sufficiently to sundry descendants 
of the early fathers to become the basis of stories by 
Hawthorne and Motley, who have made the Merry 
Mount camp the one joyous feature in the first 
decade of colonial life in Massachusetts Bay.^ 

1 Young's "Chronicles of Massachusets," p. 156; Bradford's 
"History of Plymouth Plantation," p. 284. 

2 The "New English Canaan" is to Bradford's "History" 
and Winslow's "Journal" what the life at Merry Mount was to 
that at Plymouth. Written before 1 63 5 , it was printed at Amster- 
dam in 1637. Force reprinted it in the second volume of his 
"American Tracts," Washington, 1838. A revised, corrected, 
and annotated edition was edited by Charles Francis Adams, Jr., 
and published by the Prince Society, in Boston in 1883. It is 
akeady a rare book, only 250 copies having been printed. 



4 John Hancock 

One reason, perhaps me chief one, for Morton*s 
presence here has sometimes been overlooked. If 
it is true that he was one of Sir Ferdinando Gorges' 
son John's emissaries or agents, the misrule and riot 
of his stay were not so much the object of his 
adventure as incidents of a residence which other- 
wise might have been as prosy as in the other 
settlements. The Gorges' claim to a tract of New 
England some three hundred miles square, lying 
north of the Charles River, was disputed after 
the Massachusetts Company was granted by the 
crown the whole territory as far as the Merrimac, 
including the Gorges Concession. This, it was 
contended, had been secured to the Gorges by the 
settlement of Blackstone, Jeffreys, and others; 
whereupon Endicott made haste to send forty or 
fifty squatters there. Then it became desirable to 
have the Gorges' interest looked after by some 
one on the ground or near by, and Morton may have 
been sent for this purpose.^ 

There was another and later instance of inde- 

"The cumbrous sarcasm and the pedantic scurrility of the 
New English Canaan." — Doyle's "English Colonies in America," 
II, 274. 

^ The Gorges expedition made the first permanent settlement 
on the shores of Boston Harbor, and from the post at Wessa- 
gusset came the men who first settled within the present limits 
of Boston. Lodge's "Boston" in "Historic Towns," p, 6. For 
the extent of the Gorges' enterprises on the coast, see "Maine 
Hist. Soc. Coll.," I, 56. Also Osgood's "American Colonies 
in the XVII Century," iii, chapter 3. The text of the Grant 
may be found in MacDonald's "Select Charters," p. 249. 



An Insurgent Town 5 

pendent life, less noisy and obtrusive, which, 
however, did not escape the attention of the 
ruling spirits at Shawmut and Naumkeag. Not 
far from Mount Wollaston, to which Morton had 
found his way back at this date, appeared about 
the first of May, 1630, Sir Christopher Gardiner, 
Knight, pretending that he was weary of wandering 
in the Old World and that he was seeking a retreat 
in the wilderness. His adventures suggest those of 
the martial John Smith, that soldier of fortune in 
strange lands. He had picked up a university 
degree somewhere, and had exchanged what 
Protestantism he possessed for the Roman faith. 
Moreover he brought with him, besides a servant or 
two, one Mary Grove, whom he called his cousin, 
about whose degree of consanguinity the neighbor- 
ing elders were in doubt, but concerning whose re- 
lations with Sir Christopher they were more positive 
in their opinions. His case was not so easy to 
manage as Morton's had been. The colonists' 
English reverence for titled persons and the ab- 
sence of positive proof to confirm their strong sus- 
picions held direct interference in check for a while. 
As he did not give magistrates the cause for com- 
plaint that Morton did in consorting with savages, 
the most they undertook at first was to make 
inquiry about two women in England who were 
each disputing the right of the other to call Sir 
Christopher husband. This was accordingly en- 
tered upon the records: **It is ordered that Sir 



6 John Hancock 

Christopher Gardiner aM. Mr. Wright shall be 
sent as prisoners into England by the ship Lyon, 
now returning thither." ^ When they came for the 
knight he took to the woods, leaving Mary Grove 
to be carried to Boston, where she was ordered to 
be sent to the two wives in England " to search 
her further." Meantime, while she was detained in 
Boston, Sir Christopher being in hiding, her doubt- 
ful relation toward him was disposed of by her 
marriage to one Thomas Purchase, who came out of 
the Maine woods to buy axes, ammunition, and 
incidentally to find a wife. Gardiner may have 
heard of her good fortune, since he appeared in 
time to accompany the couple to the Androscoggin 
country, whence, after a year's stay in their home, 
he returned to England to assist in urging the 
Gorges' claim to the New England tract, which was 
finally disallowed. He then disappeared from view 
and was heard of no more. 

These two romantic episodes in the early history 
of Braintree were not, to be sure, formal declara- 
tions of independence of the ruling order, but they 
were diametrically opposed to its temporal inter- 
ests, its social regime, and its spiritual tone. The 
first were contested in the courts of the realm; 
the second was flouted by scandalous and dis- 
orderly living; the third was antagonized by the 

*"With such trash, God be your direction," wrote John 
Clotworthy to John Winthrop. s "Mass. Hist. Soc. Coll.," 
VI, 209. 



An Insurgent Town 7 

two forms of religion which the colonists came here 
to escape. All together, the contrast between 
the two renegades with their households at Wessa- 
gusset and the staid families at Plymouth, Salem, 
and Boston was vivid enough to give early notoriety 
to the town which afterward became famous as 
the birthplace of national independence, in so far 
as it was the native town of two of the most active 
early advocates and promoters of separation from 
the mother country. ^ It might be imagined that 
there was something in the very air of the place to 
foster notions of protest against unwelcome re- 
straint, by whomsoever maintained, since control 
of diverse nature had been contested there by men 
of different minds. At all events it became as 
famous in the latter part of the eighteenth century 
as in the first part of the seventeenth by reason 
of two men who were born there, whose application 
of the principle of liberty differed radically from the 
lawlessness of Morton and Gardiner. 

There was a third departure from the pur- 
pose of the Bay settlers which, while it did not 
violate their sense of morality and of what was 
safe, had nevertheless a divergence from their 
own religious polity, and was almost as offen- 
sive as the waywardness of Morton and Gardi- 
ner. As early as 1689 a little group of Church 
of England people lived in Braintree, and in 

* In "Where American Independence Began," D. M. Wilson 
makes the claim of this title for the town. 



8 John Hancock 

one house at least prayers from the service 
book were daily read; probably by that Lieu- 
tenant Veazy who contributed one pound sterling 
toward building King's Chapel in Boston, where 
doubtless he and his friends occasionally wor- 
shipped, as it was only ten miles distant.^ Eleven 
years later, the London Society for the Propaga- 
tion of the Gospel in Foreign Parts was formed, 
and soon after, an '^annual encouragement of fifty 
pounds and a gratuity of twenty-five pounds for 
present occasion" was granted to "Mr. William 
Barclay, the minister of the Church of England at 
Brain tree in New England," with a collection of 
twenty books to form the nucleus of a church 
library. On account of the relaxation of Puritan 
discipHne, and the support given to Episcopacy by 
royal governors, it was impossible to make such 
short work with this alien element as would have 
suppressed it in previous years; but it was re- 
garded with scarcely more favor than a similar 
intent in earlier days when a supervising clergy- 
man was sent to Plymouth, who discreetly held 
his peace, or when Morton himself upheld the 
rites of the Estabhshed Church two generations 
before. Yet toleration was not in vogue, and the 
earliest Episcopal church in New England outside 

* Ghostly reminiscences of King's Chapel from 1686, and in 
the Revolutionary period may be found in chapters seventy- 
Seven arid seventy-eight of "Dealings with the Dead, by a 
Sexton of the Old School," Boston, 1856. 



An Insurgent Town 9 

of Boston and Newport was not to be countenanced 
by the standing order. Neither was it to be ignored, 
particularly when tithes were to be collected ; from 
the payment of which Church of England folk 
were by no means exempted. Down to 1 704 Colonel 
Edmund Quincy had hopes of suppressing church- 
men by a town vote, toward which he had sixteen 
names pledged at one time. After a ten-years' 
struggle the resident minister could say : — 

" The whole province has been very much disturbed 
on account of my coming to this place, in 17 13, and accord- 
ingly have not failed to affront and abuse me— 'atheist 
and 'papist' is the best language I can get from them. 
The people are independents, and have a perfect odium 
to those of our communion. These few are taxed and 
rated most extravagantly to support the dissenting clergy." ^ 

On the other hand, it appears that the Vener- 
able Society had not been fortunate in the choice 
of their second missionary to Braintree. And the 
church warden had been fined for ^'plowmg on 
the day of Thanksgiving," while the Puritan per- 
suasion "cohorted their families from Christmas- 
keeping and charged them to forbear." Evidently 
the exceptional placing of an Episcopal church in a 
separatist settlement was an episode of sufficient 

1 The amount to be raised is indicated by the following : " 2th 
Jan. 1670, disposed i5£ to Mr. Peter Bulkley of Concord: 20 s. 
a man for all the ministers that had bine helpfuU to the chh." 
And on the 13 May, 1672, - "To try Mr. Moses ffiske for a house 
& yearly salary of 60 pounds & five acres of marsh grass from year 
to year." — "Records of the Town of Braintree," p. 11. 



lo John Hancock 

importance to be classed ^ith the earlier provoca- 
tions which had stirred the village. It was another 
instance of independence of the primitive order 
which was not to be overlooked, and to be repressed 
if not suppressed, by the town-meeting if possible, 
or by such methods of ostracism as villagers can 
devise and make effective. 

But the spirit of independence came with the 
wind from off the ocean, inhaled by every inhabitant ; 
and though Judge Sewall'in his time was glad to 
note that *' trade went on as usual in Boston on 
Christmas Day, 1727," he also observed that 
^'Mr. Miller kept the day in his new (Episcopal) 
Church at Brain tree, and the people flock thither" ; 
as they do to-day in greater numbers, since the 
prejudice and opposition have vanished after two 
centuries of varying persistence and strength.^ 

A town which was remarked beyond its neighbors 
for radical doings in its pristine days might naturally 
be expected to distinguish itself further in the same 
direction in the progress of time and events. At 
least it would be regarded as a fitting birthplace 
of leaders in new movements and departures. 
The traditions of the place were those of protest 
if not of successful revolt ; the environment of the 
inhabitants was the spirit of freedom. Reverence 
for custom and public sentiment had been lacking 

* "We have a few rascally Jacobites and Roman Catholics in 
this town, but they do not dare show themselves." — John 
Adams, in "Works," ix. 335. 



An Insurgent Town 1 1 

in notorious instances, and an established order had 
not always been accepted by universal consent. If 
the atmosphere of a neighborhood, its known 
history, and common talk are recognized molders 
of disposition and temper, such men as Adams, 
Hancock, and Quincy seem to be the inevitable 
product of Old Braintree, and the political changes 
they were forward in bringing about were the legiti- 
mate result of their environment.^ 

^The North Precinct of Braintree was named Quincy in 1792 
for the John Quincy of Mount Wollaston, through the influence 
of Christopher Cranch. Otherwise, according to Charles Francis 
Adams, in his "History of Quincy," p. 272, the town might have 
been named for Hancock, as he was a native of the North Pre- 
cinct, and more widely known, " and popular to a degree which no 
other pubHc man has since equaled." A county afterward was 
to bear his name. See also D. M. Wilson's " Col. John Quincy, 
Master of Moimt Wollaston," p. 25. 



CHAPTER II 

HOME AND SCHOOL 

The Reverend John Hancock, minister of the 
First Church in the North Precinct of Braintree, 
made the following entry in the parish register 
of births: ''John, son of John Adams, October 
26, 1735." About fifteen months later he made 
this one: ''John Hancock, my son, January 16, 

I737-" 
An eminent jurist and writer on New England 

origins has remarked that if one is looking for the 
aristocracy of the Puritan period, he must inquire 
for the ministers and deacons : an observation whose 
truth colonial history abundantly confirms. It 
has also been shown, contrary to the common sup- 
position, that there are fewer scapegraces among 
the families of these worthies than elsewhere: 
another genealogical conclusion which the two 
boys who began life so near together exemplified 
in their respective careers. 

Of the Hancock genealogy it may be said that a 
Nathaniel Hancock was in Cambridge as early as 
1634. He died in 1652. An eldest child may have 
been born before he came to this country. A son, 



Home and School 13 

Nathaniel, was born in 1638 ; his son John," Bishop" 
John, pastor of the Lexington Church, was born 
in 167 1 ; his son John, pastor of the Braintree 
Church, was born in 1702; and his son, John 
Hancock the patriot, was born on the i6th of 
January, 1737. A daughter, Mary, was born on 
the 8th of April, 1735 ; a son, Ebenezer, on the 5th 
of November, 1744. 

Two children were born to John Hancock the 3d: 
Lydia Henchman, born in January, 1777, who died 
in the following summer, and John George Wash- 
ington, born May 21, 1778, who died from an 
accident in 1787 while skating. 

The Hancock coat of arms consists of an open 
hand, raised as if in protest, above which in the 
chief are three fighting-cocks. Perhaps it was 
with this blazonry in mind that John's father-in- 
law used to write of him as Mr. Handcock. Such 
devices of "canting arms," allusive to one's name 
or occupation, sometimes have been taken as 
indicating recent fabrication, not unknown in a new 
country; but trustworthy authorities in heraldry 
state that such descriptive display is proof of an- 
tiquity and is of highly honorable character. The 
crest is a chanticleer in bellicose attitude, made 
more terrible by the metamorphosis of postern 
plumes into the tail of a dragon. Appended to 
the whole runs the motto, — not without fitness in 
the life of a sumptuous liver, — Nul Plaisir Sans 
Peine. 



14 John Hancock 

It is not difficult to im^ine what was the boyish 
life of the two playfellows. Doubtless they were 
more carefully watched and commented upon than 
their companions, since they belonged to house- 
holds that were expected to be patterns to the 
rest of the community; and for this reason it is 
likely that they suffered some superfluous restraint 
at home which they might otherwise have escaped. 
The noblesse oblige of their day and station was 
largely negative. Thou shalt not do all that other 
boys do, for thou art the minister's son, or the 
deacon's; which was restrictive enough to cramp 
the spirit of freedom in any natural boy, unless it 
should be too strong to be bound by convention. If 
such was the tendency of the Hancock lad's training 
it did not last many years, for when he was seven 
his father died, leaving a widow and three children 
no larger inheritance than is usual with clergymen 
whose parishioners have not exposed them to the 
deceitfulness of riches. Had he Hved longer 
he would doubtless have fitted the boy for college, 
as ministers of that time could, and would have 
expected the son to follow in his steps, as he himself 
had in his father's, the noted "Bishop Hancock," 
as he was called for his masterful efficiency as pastor 
of the Lexington church and as a presiding officer. 
Even in his father's hfetime the lad fell into other 
hands when, in company with John Adams, he was 
taught by Joseph Marsh, the son of the elder 
John Hancock's predecessor in the Braintree pas- 



Home and School i^ 

torate. Upon his father's death, an important 
change awaited the son. 

An uncle, Thomas Hancock, was accounted the 
richest merchant in Boston and the most enter- 
prising in New England at a time when colonial 
commerce made many opulent, notwithstanding 
demands from the home government across the sea. 
Besides, it did not then require millions to make 
one rich. On the other hand, personal abiHty 
was not supplemented by combinations of capital 
and venal legislatures. Success was won by 
single-handed effort in an open field for all 
comers, in which there was nothing worse than 
evasion of oppressive revenue laws by everybody 
who dared to defy them. Furthermore, Thomas 
Hancock had married a daughter of Hench- 
man, a prosperous bookseller and stationer of 
Boston, and her inheritance eventually augmented 
the fortune of the childless aristocrat, making the 
prospect golden for an adopted heir. Doubtless the 
uncle had his reasons for choosing only one out of 
the three children at the Braintree parsonage as the 
object of special favor, although he did not neglect 
the other nephew and the niece. The widow 
was provided with a husband and home not long 
after her bereavement, as was apt to be the case 
with clergymen's ''relicts" in colonial days. 

The favored son John was transferred from a 
country village to the chief town of the province 
and the busiest seaport along the coast, where 



1 6 John Hancock 

the descendants of genti^who came over in the 
decade before Cromwell's rise had lived and thrived 
for a hundred years, now numbering about 17,000 
inhabitants, including alien mixtures. The swift 
and slow ships that carried oil and timber, fish 
and furs to London brought back silks and velvets, 
wines and spices, costumes and equipages, with 
the fashions of court and hall to be followed by 
citizens whose simplicity was by no means repub- 
lican, as their poHtics also were not at this time 
adverse to the crown. Moreover the boy was 
ushered into the best house in Boston. Great 
prosperity had followed Thomas Hancock after 
he left his future father-in-law, married the daughter 
Lydia, and set up for himself as bookbinder and 
bookseller at the Stationers' Arms on Ann Street 
in 1729. Within seven years he began to make 
contracts for a mansion to be built on the sunny side 
of Beacon Hill, a large part of which he had ac- 
quired for nothing.^ Granite blocks, squared and 
hammered, came from Braintree, and brownstone 
trimmings from Hartford, at a cost of 300 pounds 
sterling *'in goods." The best crown glass, 480 
squares, 12 by 18 and 8 by 12, were ordered from 
London, with wall papers on which there should 
be " peacocks, macoys, squirrel, monkeys, fruit 

1 "The result is that Thomas Hancock thus obtained all Beacon 
Hill without paying one cent for it, and he and those coming 
after him retained possession by pasturing cows there." — Justin 
Winsor, "Memorial History of Boston," ii, 520. On the value 
of the land then and now see lb., Introd., xlvi. 



Home and School 17 

and flowers/' which the merchant thinks "are 
handsomer and better than paintings done in oyle." 
Also, for the kitchen, ''a Jack of three Guineas 
price, with a wheel-fly and Spitt-Chain to it,'' 
suggestive of generous Hving, as also are subse- 
quent orders for Madeira wines " without regard 
to price provided the quality answers to it" ; to be 
accompanied by "6 Quart Decanters and 6 pint 
do., 2 doz. handsome, new fash'd wine glasses, 
6 pr. Beakers, 2 pr. pint Cans, and 1-2 do., 6 Beer 
glasses, 12 water glasses, and 2 doz. Jelly glasses." 
Well he might write a friend, "We live Pretty 
comfortable here on Beacon Hill," as he continued 
to for twenty-five years. 

The minister's son must have had awesome 
thoughts as he climbed the grand steps and entered 
the panelled hall with its broad staircase adorned 
with carved and twisted balusters and a '' Chiming 
Clock" surmounted with carved figures ''Gilt with 
burnished Gold," the case "to be 10 foot long, the 
price not to exceed 50 Guineas," — so the order for 
it ran. Then there were portraits of dignitaries 
on the walls of the great drawing-room where still 
more notable men were soon to assemble, incident- 
ally for a boy's education in things not taught at 
school. 

To be transplanted from the country parsonage 
to a lordly mansion on Beacon Hill was an event 
whose importance a lad of seven years could not 
be expected to appreciate immediately, as he could 



1 8 John Hancock 

not foresee all its consequences. The loss of his 
childhood's home would not be made up to him at 
once by the grandeur of his uncle's house, but 
it was an exchange which had the fewest possible 
drawbacks. An envied position among his play- 
mates was established at once, with predictions 
of an assured fortune in the future. The flattery 
which boys have their own way of conveying would 
not tend to diminish his native vanity. He would 
have exhibited an alarming precocity in goodness if 
he had not developed some boyish sense of New- 
England caste even while living in his father's 
house, which would not be lessened in the stately 
domicile of his uncle, whose tastes and sympathies 
were of a kind to direct the nephew into the upper 
walks of life. For Thomas Hancock had a keen 
appreciation of social values and a high estimate of 
education and literature according to the somewhat 
narrow standards of his time, as shown by his 
gift of books to the value of five hundred pounds 
sterling to Harvard College, and by founding a pro- 
fessorship of Oriental Languages and of Hebrew in 
a day when this language was one of the useful and 
elegant accomplishments of the ministry, as it had 
been of queens in Shakespeare's day. 

Whether there was anything more attractive 
to a boy than the Hebraic literature, which like 
Israelitish names had prevailed in the Puritan 
period, cannot with safety be asserted of volumes 
in the library in the Hancock house; but if there 



Home and School 19 

was a collection large or small of current and classic 
British authors in any Boston home, it should 
have been in that of the bookseller Henchman's 
son-in-law, himself an importer of books. Doubt- 
less it had theological tomes enough for a layman's 
drowsy perusal after the Sunday dinner, but if 
English classics in bookstores followed Berkeley's 
gift of them to Yale College in 1733, Milton, 
Addison, Steele, Cowley, and Waller would come 
to Boston also, with Swift, Cervantes, and even 
Butler and his ''Hudibras." ''The Lamentations 
of Mary Hooper" and "Remarkable Providences," 
"The Folly of Sinning" and the "Practice of 
Repentance" might be handed down from Michael 
Perry's ancient stock, along with the scandalous 
item of "nine packs of playing cards," showing 
incidentally that Boston people were not all so 
straight-laced that they might not with equal 
propriety have read, say, Richardson's "Pamela," 
even if it were supposed to be the novel which drove 
Jonathan Edwards from Northampton to the 
Stockbridge Indians. One cannot imagine that 
Boston escaped the hterary awakening which 
followed Ben Franklin's raising of the blockade 
of current classics in 1730 by baiting the country 
with scraps in his almanac from world litera- 
tures, and creating an appetite for something 
besides "The Calling of the Jews," "Ornaments 
of Sion," '' Sermons of Glory," and the rest of that 
''New England Library" which Judge Samuel 



20 John Hancock 

Sewall's son had gathered in the Steeple Chamber 
of the Old South Church, whose most entertaining 
volumes were " Whale Fishing in Greenland," 
" Purchas His Pilgrimage," and Ward's '' Simple 
Cobler of Agawam." 

By the year that young John Hancock came to 
live with his uncle and aunt it was her fault if she 
did not bring lighter books from her father's shop 
or her husband's for her bright nephew to read, 
and his fault if he did not read them in the winter 
evenings of 1745 and after. The ''Tatler," 
''Spectator," and "Guardian" had been printed 
long enough to get between board covers. Richard- 
son was turning out his stories, to be followed by 
Fielding, Smollet, and Sterne. If fiction was 
under a ban in Boston, Defoe's "Robinson Crusoe" 
should not have been debarred, as Bunyan's 
"Pilgrim's Progress" was not, with its strong 
human interest and religious teaching. If the lad 
did not come in contact with some of the best books 
that have been written in English, it was because 
they were not in the Boston market nor brought out 
of London with other luxuries for people who could 
well afford them. Therefore, unless he showed a 
greater repugnance to reading than his later life dis- 
closed, it may fairly be inferred that the home 
education in his new environment was as good as 
the literary taste of the period permitted. 

As a matter of course he was sent to the Boston 
Public Latin School, the oldest educational insti- 



Home and School 21 

tution in the country, known first as the South 
Grammar School, standing behind King's Chapel 
for a hundred and thirty- three years. The Puritan 
fathers soon after their settlement provided, in 
1635, a school for teaching the higher branches, 
with special reference to advanced studies in the 
college to be founded at Newtown (Cambridge) a 
little later. John Cotton, minister of the First 
Church, had in mind the High School of his Lin- 
colnshire Boston, founded by Philip and Mary 
in 1554, and with his love for both the school 
and college here he divided his estate between 
them. So John Winthrop and his companions 
determined that ^'for the common defence and for 
the general welfare the classical languages should 
be taught at the common charge " ; and the General 
Court added, ^Hhat learning be not buried in the 
graves of our fathers.'^ 

Philemon Pormont was the first master. As a 
London boy he might have stolen into the Globe 
or Blackfriars theatres, unknown to his Puritan 
father, to see Shakespeare in one of his own plays. 
Daniel Maude, the second master, was an old 
graduate of Emmanuel College, Cambridge, nearly 
fifty years of age when young John Milton took 
his degree at Christ Church three years before 
Maude came to America. Even Ezekiel Cheever, 
who gave the Latin school a great name in the 
thirty-eight years of his teaching, was only six 
years younger than the great epic poet, who as Dep- 



22 John Hancock 

uty Grecian might ha^ heard Ezekiel translate 
Erasmus in St. Paul's School, London, where 
tradition has placed in his boyhood the famous 
master, who died in the harness at ninety-four 
and was buried from his schoolhouse; a funeral 
oration being pronounced by his successor, and a 
sermon delivered later by Cotton Mather, the 
Magnalian and the Magnificent. 

The next master to achieve distinction was 
John Lovell, who was in full sway when the Han- 
cock boy was sent to mingle with a hundred others 
who forgathered at seven o'clock every morning in 
the old building on School Street. For ten years 
Lovell had been the embodiment of a despotism 
found in the schoolhouses of New England, and for 
thirty-two years more he was to rule as with a rod 
of iron. EGs portrait in Harvard Memorial Hall, 
drawn by Smibert, his pupil, "while the terrific 
impressions of the pedagogue were yet vibrating 
on his nerves," betokens a master of Young Ameri- 
cans. Yet, loyahst as he was, with high notions 
of the divine right of kings and schoolmasters, he 
did not entirely suppress mutterings that were to 
grow louder before he laid down his sceptre on April 
19, 1775, when, with Earl Percy's brigade drawn 
up at the head of the street ready to start for 
Lexington, he dismissed the boys with a final 
command, "Deponite libros: war's begun and 
school's done." His son James, assistant at the 
Qtber end of the room, was on the Patriot side^ 



Home and School 23 

and a daughter so fascinated a British officer of 
ordnance that in love's absentmindedness he sent 
to Bunker Hill twelve-pound shot for the six- 
pounder guns that were to open the fight, and re- 
peated the blunder when the disgusted commander 
sent orders to correct it.^ 

To return to that morning when young John 
faced the tyrant pedagogue. His admission exam- 
ination had been easy enough, — a few verses 
read from the King James Version of the Bible. 
The text-books of the first year were more formi- 
dable : ^'Cheever's Accidence," on its way to 
the eighteenth edition, ^'Nomenclatura Brevis," 
*' Corderius ' Colloquies, " — an early start in Latin 
for a boy of eight. The next year came "^Esop's 
Fables," *'Eutropius," and ''Lilly's Grammar"; 
and so on until the fourth year, when, furnished with 
a desk, the boy was expected to write Latin, read 
Caesar, then Cicero, Virgil, and in the sixth year 
the Greek of Xenophon, Homer, and the New 
Testament. Linguistic knowledge in that day, 
like sap, went from the roots upward, and language 

1 "Voted, that the sum of One hundred and twenty pounds be 
allowed and paid unto Mr. John Lovell, for his Salary as Master 
of the South Grammar School for the ensuing Year." And, later 
in the way of promotion, "A further Sum of Forty pounds be 
allowed him, as an encouragement for him to remain and exert 
himself in the Service of the Town the ensuing Year," 

A conmiittee of fifty of the principal men of the town visited 
this school and others on the 4th of July, 1770, and reported that 
they found "all in very good order." — " Boston Town Records," 
1770, pp. 23, 55. 



24 John Hancock 

was not acquired at sigMP; but it became a perma- 
nent possession which scholars carried with them 
to use throughout a Ufetime on great occasions. 
From seven o'clock, or in winter eight, declensions 
and conjugations, accent, quantity, and versifi- 
cation prepared the way for the humanities and 
the study of divinity, which had been the main pur- 
pose of early education in the Province. After 
the long day of classics came an hour in penman- 
ship, with the making and mending of quills, now a 
lost art in these days of ''iron pens," as Carlyle 
called them with maledictions on their sputter, and 
of intermittent fountains: One autograph which 
became historic shows that John Hancock learned 
to point, nib, and handle the quill. ^ 

It would be halving the story of the Latin School 
to drop it with the Evacuation of Boston. Men of 
less distinction than Cheever and Lovell followed 
them until Benjamin A. Gould restored much of 
its renown between 1814 and 1828, after which 

* Not all his signatures are as elegant as the one which followed 
the Declaration of Independence. For instance, one in 1770, 
among those of the Selectmen of Boston, like most of the quill- 
pen autographs of the time, might have been written by a school- 
boy with a sharp stick. The facsimile is in Winsor's "Memorial 
History of Boston," n, 537. " Hancock seems to have had in mind 
an official proportion in the dimensions of his name at the head of 
the Declaration." — Tudor's "Life of Otis," p. 265, note. One of 
his whims was for iron filings instead of sand, which our forefath- 
ers used to dash upon the wet ink as an absorbent before the day of 
paper blotters, and is even yet used by some members of the 
Senate and of the Supreme Court. 



Home and School 25 

names still familiar appear among its instructors, — 
Bishop Wainwright, Professor Henry W. Torrey, 
Rev. Edward E. Hale, Dr. John P. Reynolds, and 
Phillips Brooks, who needs no title. Among its 
graduates are names of similar eminence, — Presi- 
dents Leverett, Langdon, Everett, and Eliot of Har- 
vard, Pynchon of Trinity; Professors Childs, and 
Cooke; Governors, Judges, and Mayors; Robert 
C. Winthrop, Charles Francis Adams, Charles 
Sumner, Wendell Phillips, Emerson, Motley, and. 
Parkman, with others who have been an honor to 
the School which started them toward distinction. 
Four graduates wrote their names after that of 
the first, whose bold signature heads the illustrious 
roll of Signers of the Declaration of Independence ; 
and many others are found in the army and civil 
lists of the Revolution, and others still in the annals 
of Americans who were loyal to the royal govern- 
ment which had persisted here for one hundred and 
seventy years. And in the years of a later rebelHon 
two hundred and seventy-six filled posts in the 
military and naval service, of whom fifty fell. 



CHAPTER III 



IN HARVARD COLLEGE 



It was almost as inevitable that a Latin School 
graduate in the seventeenth century should enter 
Harvard as that the Charles River should flow into 
the Back Bay. In those days of the unbridged 
river the college was so inconveniently distant from 
Boston that a town boy might consider himself 
away from home and as far from urban attractions 
as he could wish to be, since to go or return he would 
have to take the circuitous path through Brookline, 
Roxbury, and the Neck or risk the uncertainties 
and delays of Charlestown ferry with the customary 
assortment of winds and weather the year through.^ 
To be sure, there were fortifications against chills 
to be had at the Royal Exchange and other taverns, 
which might or might not lessen the discomforts 
of the way back to college after such primitive 
entertainments as the town then afforded, of 

1 The ferry was a source of revenue to Harvard from 1640 until 
a bridge was built to Charlestown in 1785, of which Hancock 
was the first on the list of incorporators. — Quincy's "History of 
Harvard," 11, 271. Two hundred pounds annually were to be 
paid to Harvard College to compensate it for the loss of the ferry. 
— Mary Caroline Crawford's "Old Boston Days and Ways," 
p. 289. 



In Harvard College 27 

which the Thursday Lecture was the only one 
sufficiently recognized by the community to cause 
the closing of the schools at ten o'clock on that 
day of the week. No great hilarity, however, was 
encouraged, and the half-holiday was considerably 
shortened by the length of the semi-political, 
semi-religious discourse which had been the one 
dissipation of the Province for a century and a half, 
with high days of ordination, general muster of the 
miHtia, and an occasional execution, accompanied 
by a sermon. 

The queen of New England festivals was Com- 
mencement Day, a high day in Cambridge and a 
hoHday in the neighborhood, shops being closed in 
Boston and business generally suspended. During 
an entire week Cambridge Common was covered 
with lanes of booths, inviting visitors from town 
and country to behold exotic wonders, to take 
a hand in sundry ventures of chance, to eat sub- 
stantial viands, and to drink liquors of foreign 
and domestic brands until the result was far from 
Puritanic, or even classic and academic, as these 
terms are commonly understood by the unlearned. 
In fact, hilarity had reached such extremes the 
year before John Hancock's entrance into college 
that three gentlemen whose sons were to be gradu- 
ated offered the authorities a thousand pounds, 
old tenor, if a Commencement should beheld "for 
that year in a more private manner" ; and in con- 
sideration of "thQ low state of the college treasury, 



28 John Hancock 

the extravagant expend and disorders attending 
upon graduation," the offer was accepted by the 
Corporation vote — which the Board of Overseers 
straightway negatived, with an eye to the popular 
protest that would be sure to follow so radical a 
measure as the sudden discontinuance of the 
general and extended holiday. With the thousand 
pounds in view the Corporation changed its tactics 
and voted that ''on account of the high price of 
provisions and the extraordinary and depressing 
drought, which we apprehend to be such a judg- 
ment of God as calls for fasting and mourning and 
not for joy and festivity, the Commencement for 
the present be private." Not even so were the 
Overseers to be defrauded of their annual outing, 
and the proposed substitution of a fast day got a 
crushing defeat. In turn the Corporation appealed 
to parents of the graduating class to retrench their 
sons' Commencement expenses "so as may best 
correspond with the frowns of Divine Providence, 
and to take effectual care to have their sons' cham- 
bers cleared of company, and their entertainments 
finished on the evening of said day or at furthest 
by next morning." 

But matters did not mend for six years, when the 
Overseers themselves in their turn recommended to 
the Corporation "to take effectual measures to 
prevent imdergraduates from having entertain- 
ments of any kind, either in the College or in any 
house in Cambridge after the Commencement 



In Harvard College 29 

Day/' that is, during the academic year opened 
by that day with unbecoming festivity. Then 
the Corporation took its revenge by paying no more 
heed to this recommendation than to advise 
''the Bachelors to endeavor to get away with their 
goods on Thursday and not to continue in College 
after Friday," finally shortened to " after dinner 
on Thursday." Thus the two branches of govern- 
ment tossed the question back and forth till at length 
the need of a fast became so evident as to secure a 
vote that, " Whereas in the providence of God there 
hath been a distressing drought whereby the first 
crop of hay hath been greatly diminished and is 
now past recovery, and a great scarcity as to kine 
feeding at this time, and a dark state of Providence 
with respect to the war we are engaged in calHng 
for humiHation and fasting; therefore it is voted 
that degrees be given to candidates without their 
personal attendance." Later, dancing was for- 
bidden during the week ; and to the President was 
assigned the duty of expunging all exceptional parts 
from Commencement exercises, and particularly 
"to put an end to the practice of addressing the 
female sex." 

It was to such features of college life that the 
Hancock boy was introduced on the Commence- 
ment Day when he rode over to Cambridge with 
his uncle Thomas and aunt Lydia in the family 
coach, and was presented by the uncle, a dignitary 
who was of sufficient importance to be invited on 



30 John Hancock 

one occasion at least to dine with the college 
authorities as a distinguished guest. It must be 
admitted that Freshman Hancock might have had 
glimpses of ''exercises" on the opening day such 
as would not contribute to a thirst for knowledge 
so much as for more material dehghts; yet if the 
domestic beverages in the days of a thriving West 
India trade be considered, and what quantities 
of native and imported Hquors were consumed at 
tavern dinners after ordinations, some allowance 
must be made for the celebration of the one 
hundred and fifteenth anniversary of the found- 
ing of the College. Indeed, the authorities re- 
laxed somewhat after the fasting year, recom- 
mended a ''repeal of the law prohibiting the 
drinking of punch," and passed a vote that "it 
shall be no offence if any scholar shall, at Commence- 
ment, make and entertain guests at his chamber 
with punch"; and a year later it was voted by 
both Boards that "it shall be no offence if the 
scholars, in a sober manner, entertain one another 
and strangers with punch, which as it is now 
usually made, is no intoxicating Hquor." The 
historian-president adds with a judicial pro- 
nouncement which is delicious: "A reason more 
plausible than satisfactory, as neither Board could 
extend its control to the ingredients or propor- 
tions of the mixture;" suggesting that there are 
some things which even a College Corporation 
cannot regulate. 



In Harvard College 31 

It must not be supposed that the festive side 
of Commencement was all that the boy of thir- 
teen saw and heard. Early in the forenoon there 
was an imposing procession from Hall to Meeting- 
house in the order of increasing importance from 
Freshmen upward to the President walking alone 
in his majesty, followed by the Governor and his 
troop, who on a circuitous route to Cambridge had 
advertised the performances as effectually and need- 
lessly as the street parade of the later circus an- 
nounced what might be expected in the mammoth 
tent. Assembled on the platform built around the 
pulpit on the north side of the ancient edifice, civil, 
mihtary, and academic dignitaries, resplendent in 
British uniforms of red and gold, or in ermine, 
velvet, and silk, presented an array of color to 
which the modern display of collegiate regaha is 
as sombre as the last leaves of autumn. Nor 
was there an entire absence of decoration in the 
audience. Indeed, color was becoming so rampant 
and extravagant that a law was made only four 
years later that ''on no occasion any of the scholars 
shall wear any gold or silver lace or silver brocade 
in the College or town of Cambridge ; and on Com- 
mencement Daye every candidate for his degree 
who shall appear dressed contrary to such regula- 
tion may not expect to receive his degree." 

As for the ladies who had anticipated this high 
day for a year — but' without co-educational ambi- 
tions — it is recorded that in 1758 one at least sat 



32 John Hancock 

up all night lest the arrangement of her coiffure 
should be disturbed ; and that such was the towering 
height of these structures that they had to be pro- 
truded outside the carriage windows ; while hoop 
skirts were of so ''wide circumference" that the 
roomy family coaches could contain only two of 
them. On the floor the scene was little less brilliant. 
Coats of peach-bloom and lavender, waistcoats of 
satin, gold-laced and embroidered ; smallclothes of 
velvet, ending in stockings of silk in rainbow hues, 
with shoes whose silver buckles flashed responses 
to their like at knee and stock. Certainly Com- 
mencement in the middle of the eighteenth century 
outshone in externals the scriptural splendor of 
"an army with banners." 

When silence was secured President Holyoke 
arose from his triangular throne of turned wood 
behind the pulpit canopied by a sounding-board to 
pronounce an invocation, whose solemnity was not 
succeeded by a brazen blare, called ''Music" in 
the programmes of to-day. Instead, a salutatory 
oration followed in Latin, addressing principalities 
and powers of Church and State present, with 
unfailing mention of lower college classes in con- 
descending terms, and an irrepressible allusion 
to feminine spectators in the south gallery who, if 
they did not understand the unknown tongue, 
knew by the constricted smiles of the elders and 
the broader ones of the students that something 
interesting was being said, and they fanned them- 



In Harvard College 33 

selves with mingled vexation, approbation, and 
violence. In the recorded order of names and 
theses Nathaniel Cotton should have maintained 
that ''Rerum mudanum, in propriis earum Disposi- 
tionibus Conservatio, non est quotidiana Creatio." 
He was closely followed to detect any Arminian 
digression from Calvinism, or divagation towards 
that antipaedobaptist heresy which had dethroned 
President Dunster a hundred years before; or 
again, if he had been tainted by those ''dregs of 
papistrie," which in the guise of Episcopacy had 
captivated Rector Cutler of the class of 1701, 
President of Yale, and removed him to the pastorate 
of Christ Church, Boston. Whatever complexion 
the pronouncement had it would not meet with 
unqualified commendation, since theological lines 
were sharply drawn and there were searchings of 
heart for the divisions of Reuben. So likewise 
when John Wendell maintained that ''Rhetorica 
est Ars alios inducendi ut Credant quidquid vult 
Rhetor," — with an unconscious application to a 
graduate who should bear his name eighty-one 
years later, — there were aristocratic ears that 
listened for allusions to ''the loyal subjects of the 
best of monarchs," and also uneasy auditors who 
had hopes for his future if he should venture to 
mention " the sacred rights and liberties bequeathed 
to us by our pious fathers ; " for some were beginning 
to have leanings toward an independence about 
which they said little at present. After further 



34 John Hancock 

discourse in Latin, degrees were conferred upon the 
graduating class in groups of four, and upon Bache- 
lors of three years' standing ; but honorary degrees 
were as rare as the return of comets, only two in 
one hundred and thirty-five years. 

Exercises finished, the learned portion of the 
assembly betook itself in reverse order to the 
Commons Hall for substantial refreshment, and 
the rest departed in relaxed order to their homes or 
to the tents on the Common, while the undergradu- 
ates convoyed friends to their rooms, where were 
set forth solids and fluids whose character and 
strength from time to time received legislative 
attention from the government of the College. 
By nightfall the entire population of the town and 
strangers within its gates had attained to various 
degrees of their annual exaltation of spirit, academic 
and alcohoHc. 

The contrast of term days when they immediately 
followed Commencement must have been chiUing 
to a Freshman like the Hancock youth. At six 
in the morning he had to take his seat in the front 
row in Holden Chapel and listen to the Scriptures 
read in Hebrew or Greek by the upper classes and to 
an exposition by President or Professor, followed by 
a prayer of some length. If there was a psalm 
sung its tune was as lugubrious as that York 
which Judge Sewall so loved to set. By half-past 
six relief came in recitation rooms, and in more 
welcome guise an hour after, when a clamoring 



In Harvard College 35 

crowd jostled one another at the buttery hatch for 
biscuit and beer, coffee, chocolate, or milk accord- 
ing to their orders, given on the first Friday of the 
month, for the ensuing weeks. 

These ''sizings" or rations dispatched, in the 
yard or in their rooms, there were hours of study 
and recitation, interrupted by "bevers," between- 
meals bites, until dinner when all assembled in 
Commons Hall, sixteen at a table, to be served 
each with a pound of meat and vegetables in their 
season, brought by classmate waiters. They also 
kept two pewter mugs replenished with cider, 
circulated after the manner of loving cups, for 
bacilli had not then been discovered. Still, it was 
enjoined that drinking vessels should be scoured 
once a week and plates twice a quarter. With an 
afternoon bever and a supper of bread and milk, 
or of meat pie and half a pint of beer, the eating of 
the day was supposed to be over, at a cost of seven 
shillings per week. It has been observed that as 
the beer was made at the College brew-house it was 
not exceedingly strong. Nothing is said about the 
hardness of the cider, but as the price was raised 
after February first it may have been to correspond 
with its increased efficiency.^ 

Eating and drinking were not, however, the 

1 "They shall not frequent the company of such men as lead an 
ungirt and dissolute Ufe, nor be of the artillery or train-band, nor 
use their mother tongue." — College Laws, in Quincy's "History 
of Harvard," i, 516. 



36 John Hancock 

principal occupation of the youth who foregath- 
ered at the College in the mid-century. Nor did 
athletics as now known absorb time and energy. 
Granting that mental discipline used to be the 
chief purpose of academic Kfe, it did not much 
matter in what class of studies this was acquired. 
During the first century and a half at Harvard the 
curriculum accorded with the popular habits of 
thought and discussion, whose leaders must be 
trained in the science of theology, which for pro- 
fessional purposes included mental and moral philos- 
ophy with logic, rhetoric, and language as channels 
of expression. If students came with other pro- 
fessions than the ministry in mind, continuous lin- 
guistic studies were useful ; and there was Httle of 
human knowledge then possessed that was not com- 
passed by the instruction of tutors and professors. 
At all events John Hancock, son and grandson of 
ministers and nephew of the founder of a Hebrew 
professorship, cpuld not expect to escape entirely 
from the traditions of his family, although he may 
have looked with more favor upon his uncle's book 
and tea trade than upon his father's ministerial 
career. In any case, divinity and linguistic 
courses were all that were to be had, and what liis 
college companions of all sorts shared with him. 

Accordingly he bent with more or less assiduity 
in his Freshman year to Tully, Virgil, and the Greek 
Testament four days in the week and on Fridays 
to Rhetoric, with the Greek Catechism and Ramus's 



In Harvard College 37 

"Definitions" at the week's end. As a Sophomore 
he recited Burgerdiscius's ''Logic," Heerboord's 
''Melemata," disputing Mondays and Tuesdays, 
reading the classics every day, and on Saturday 
Wollebius's ''Divinity." In his Junior year there 
were Physics, Ethics, Metaphysics, Divinity, and 
Disputes. As Senior Sophister he attained to 
Geometry, Astronomy, Geography, and Arithmetic 
— a strange assignment of primary studies, perhaps 
as a concession to the business end of the class, and 
of more importance to young Hancock than Wolle- 
bius, Heerboord, and all the heavy-armed Hollanders 
that our forefathers brought out of Leyden and 
Amsterdam to Plymouth and Boston.^ Taken all 
together his college course enabled the young man 
to discuss divine decrees, foreknowledge, predestina- 
tion, and election at his uncle's fireside, as they were 
debated at every hearthstone in New England; 
also to converse in Erasmian Latin with minister 
and magistrate when Burgundy decanters went 
round the table ; to keep accounts of sales and pur- 
chases by London agents ; to know where were the 
ports to which his uncle's ships sailed when he 
enlarged his business. 

Then there were a few collaterals of instruction 

*The prophetic and anticipatory President Hoar urged the 
establishing of a chemical laboratory and an ergasterium "for 
mechanic fancies" in 1674, two hundred years before a "workshop 
course" began to count for a degree in some colleges. The Great 
and General Court declared itself against such a material and un- 
timely innovation. 



38 John Hancock 

not included in the cui^ulum, although sometimes 
charged in the bills, characteristic of the period and 
of juvenile spirits always. Students were younger 
then, if not more scholastic in their behavior, and 
their dress if not more extravagant was at least 
more picturesque in the fashion of it, in which there 
is good reason to believe that John Hancock was a 
leader. Ranked according to the social importance 
of his family as the custom was, instead of an 
alphabetical order, he had one of the best seats in 
Chapel and Hall, with the right to help himself at 
table before his fellows lower down and with 
privileges of precedence on all occasions. His 
subsequent popularity must have begun in college, 
and his social graces and courtly manners were not 
after-graduation acquisitions. From certain miH- 
tary ambitions which he cherished at a later day 
it is more than probable that he practised the manly 
exercises of sword-play and horsemanship, together 
with such other accompHshments as belonged to the 
society gallant of the period. However this may 
be, he came through the perils of fagging and the 
risks of corporal punishment in the Library, with 
prayer by the President before and after, and more 
protracted sufferings in the Greek Catechism and 
Hebrew Psalter, with repetitions of the previous 
Sunday's sermons, not to mention uncertainties of 
diet which kept students in a state of intermittent 
remonstrance and chronic inclination to war- 
dances around the Rebellion Tree, foreshadowing 



In Harvard College 39 

later gatherings about another Tree on Boston 
Common. 

At last the annual Day of days arrived on the 
17 th of July, 1754, when at the age of seventeen he 
was listed for his degree of Bachelor of Arts, and for 
the title of Sir, if he should remain in residence. 
It appears that the Class of '54 distinguished 
itself by the splendor of its apparel sufficiently 
to provoke the sumptuary enactments already 
mentioned, which were passed soon after this 
year's Commencement, whose radiance must have 
been like that of the setting sun beneath the cloud- 
bank of a long and dull day. Possibly it was a 
compensation to some for the monotony of their 
college years. And it is fair to suppose that our 
gilded youth from the mansion on Beacon Hill 
was not surpassed in his costume by the elegance of 
any sartorial creations on that memorable occasion. 
Doubtless some of them were not inferior to that 
of a later graduate, who, laws or no laws to the con- 
trary, took his degree ''dressed in coat and breeches 
of pearl-colored satin, white silk waistcoat and 
stockings, buckles in his shoes, and his hair pow- 
dered according to the style of the day." If this was 
allowed in the early days of republican simplicity, 
as it was, what might have been the attire of the 
second colonial mid-century when the graduate 
burst from the chrysalis years of monastic scholas- 
ticism into the glory of his emancipation. 

As for the intellectual furnishing of the Class of 



40 John Hancock 

1754, it could not ha^^been mean and meagre to 
be able to defend theses which have been handed 
down with the names of the class. To be sure, the 
Latin phraseology seems to add to the erudite 
character of the subjects, as no doubt the maintain- 
ing of them in the same tongue contributed some- 
what to the impression created upon one half of the 
audience at least. For example, when the shortest 
of these propositions was announced: ''Anima a 
Deo immediate creatur, et in corpus infunditur,'' 
something of magnificence was added to the sim- 
plicity of the BibHcal account of man's creation. 
So the disputable dogma that " Grammar determines 
the proper use of letters, syllables, words, and sen- 
tences in whatever language" seems less common- 
place in the Latin than in the vernacular, as doubt- 
less its defence did in the dialect of Cicero, if not in 
his pronunciation. Nothing so daring, however, 
was attempted at this Commencement as at the 
first one which young Hancock attended, when a 
Senior risked his reputation for orthodoxy by 
maintaining that "Diluvii Noachi causa secundaria 
fuit Cometae Appropinquatio." If one had de- 
fended this thesis in 1910 with two comets in sight, 
what fears of a greater flood than Noah's might 
have been inspired. In attempting to assign his 
possible thesis to Hancock on the faded programme 
of one hundred and fifty-eight years ago it seems 
most likely that he would illustrate this one of 
a dramatic complexion, to wit, that "Anger re- 



In Harvard College 41 

quires an excited and trembling voice ; Grief, slow 
and broken; Fear, low and hesitating; Joy, tran- 
quil and soft ; Perplexity, serious and grave," One 
would Kke to read such an argument, if translated, 
although it might lose thereby some of the effect 
which its sonorous periods had upon hearers to 
whom the ancient tongue was as familiar as it 
was to Lord Bacon when he feared to commit his 
greatest work to the uncertain future of his mother 
English. 

Interesting as these scholastic exercises were to 
our ancestors, the longest Commencement had an 
end even when the speaking was protracted through 
the afternoon. At its close — there was no Class- 
Day then — John Hancock bade good-bye to his 
classmates, doubtless in the order of their placing 
on the list which had hung in the buttery for four 
years, printed once for all upon the programme 
of graduation. Did he say in the language he had 
been required to use during the entire course on 
College grounds: ''Valete socii et sodales, unus et 
omnes"? Or, "Farewell, Henry Dwight," first 
on the roll and first to die, within two years? 
And "Good-bye, Samuel Foxcroft," the next, 
survivor of all fifty-three years later ; and Samuel 
Quincy and Jonathan Webb, the next on the roll, 
both to outlive himself, whose name should outlast 
those of the nineteen others who stood together on 
that summer evening: William Warner and Bela 
Lincoln, Phillips Payson and Benjamin Church, 



42 John Hancock 

Samuel Marshall aiK^pDaniel Treadwell, Nathan 
Webb, James Allen, and Nathan Fisk, Jason 
Haven, Jacob Foster, Peter Powers, William Patten 
and Samuel West, — who lived till 1807, — and last 
of all Ezra Thayer, who died the year the war 
broke out. Of them all only one is no t * ' lost to name 
and fame." Yet some did fardels bear, doctors of 
medicine, law, and theology; but none was to be 
so adorned with duplicated degrees and repeated 
honors as John Hancock the handsome, the popu- 
lar, and the picturesque.^ 

The following letter to his sister Mary, two years 
his senior, was written in his last term in college : — 

"Harvard College, May ist, 1754. 
"Dear Sister, 

"I Believe Time slips very easie with you, I wish you 
would spend one Hour in writing to me, I do assure you I 
should take it as a great favour. There was, nay now is, 
a report that you are going to be married very soon, I should 
be Glad to know to whom. I hope you will give me an 
Invitation, (whether the report be true or false I cannot 
tell). 

1 "John Hancock, A.M., also Yale, 1769, College of New Jersey, 
1769; LL.D., 1792; Brown University, 1788; Fellow American 
Academy ; Governor Massachusetts ; President Continental Con- 
gress." — "Harvard Quinquennial Catalogue." 

In his Yale diploma he is designated, "Johannem Hancock, 
Armigerum, Virum bonae, Tam moribus inculpatis, Literis orna- 
tum, Artium Liberalium vere Facto, Tantorem munificium, nee 
non de Patria quam optime meritum." — From the original in the 
possession of Miss Edith R, Blanchard of Providence. The main 
features of student life in John Hancock's day are gathered from 



In Harvard College 43 

"I hope at the Return of Mr. Cotton, you will be so good 
as to write to me I enjoy at present perfect health, & 
should be very Glad to see you. 

"Accept my kind Love to you, I hope you are well, and 
I am 

"Dear Sister, 
"P.S. I give you much Joy, "Your ever Loving Brother, 
but shall have more reason so "Till Death shall separate us, 
to do after receiving a "John Hancock. " 

Letter from you." ^ 

President Quincy's "History of Harvard College" with further 
particulars from documents in the archives of the University. 
1 From Ms. Collection of William P. Greenough, Esq., of Boston. 



CHAPTER IV 



BOSTON AND BUSINESS 



Unlike most graduates John Hancock did not 
have to confront the difficult question of what 
vocation he should follow. His uncle Thomas, 
when he adopted his brother's son, had definite 
intentions about perpetuating the business he had 
built up. There were also good and substantial 
reasons for the nephew to go into his uncle's ware- 
house and office after graduation. Possibly if 
his father had lived he might have been impressed 
with some dutiful sentiments about keeping up the 
ministerial succession after the manner of the 
Mathers and other clerical families, but other in- 
fluences prevailed in the mansion of the merchant 
uncle, who was to show that there are ways of 
doing good in unprofessional careers. It may be 
an idle speculation, although an interesting one, 
to conjecture what sort of a divine John Hancock 
would have made; but the query should include 
life in the Brain tree parsonage and eliminate the 
environment of Beacon Hill. It is more to the 
point to inquire about the conditions which made 
him a man of business before he entered upon 
public life. 



Boston and Business 45 

A glance at commercial and social Boston in the 
middle of the eighteenth century will reveal some of 
the surroundings and influences into which the 
college graduate was entering. 

To those who are famihar with the Boston of 
to-day it is not easy to reduce the city of 700,000 
inhabitants to a town of 17,000 and from the 
densely and solidly built streets covering the old 
peninsula and much of the bay to uncrowded acres 
by the waterside and open home lots on the hill- 
sides facing the ocean, on which stood the plain 
frame houses of a thrifty people, with here and there 
a more pretentious dwelling of brick or stone in 
the variable style now known as the Colonial and 
imitated with varying degrees of success. It was 
best seen from the harbor as the busiest port on 
the New England coast. The principal wharf 
had been growing seaward with the waxing pros- 
perity of the town until it now reached half a mile 
into the bay, earning the name of Long Wharf, 
thrown out Hke a welcoming gang-plank to ships 
of every nation. At the sea end of it vessels 
of the deepest draught could be moored, and along 
its sunny side craft of every shape, rig, and 
denomination tied up for unloading and reloading. 
Designations now gone by distinguished the 
''snow" from the ''ketch" and this from the 
"smack" and the "schooner," then a recent name 
improvised by a bystander when the first two- 
master "scooned" along the water from a Glouces- 



46 John Hancock 

ter shipyard in 1714.^ Their names had often a 
Hebraic cast Hke those of their builders and captains, 
from John Winthrop's ''Blessing of the Bay," 
the first craft built in New England, down to the 
^'Samuel and Hannah," the ''Mary and Elizabeth" 
and Andrew Ehot's "Abigail," Bartholomew 
Green's "Silvanus," and John Hobby's "Rebecca." 
Later there was a leaning towards the virtues 
rather than the graces, as the "Tryal," "Endeavor," 
and "Providence," with now and then a look down- 
ward to the water in the "Dolphin" and the "Swan," 
and upward to the sky in the "Lark" and the 
^'Swallow." Hancock's sloop "Liberty" became 
more famous than any other craft. 

The fellows who v/ere on deck were not uniformly 
so sanctimonious as their scriptural prenomens 
might lead one to suppose, at least when they were 
beyond the reach of magistrates, deacons, and 
custom-house officials. Peletiah Hibbins, Abinadab 
Foxcroft, Lo-ammi Maverick^ and their messmates 
were apt to return quick and confusing answers 
to any stroller who dropped unwelcome remarks 
from the dock, or became too inquisitive about the 
last voyage or the next one. Too much curiosity 
regarding cargoes and bills of lading would meet 
with unilluminating replies ; for were not the de- 

^ In like manner on land there were vehicles of strange names : 
chariots, coaches, calashes, chaises, and chairs; drawn in 1742 by 
418 horses, according to the enumeration of that year. — "Memo- 
rial History of Boston," 11, 441. 

2 Fathergone Dinley was a widow's son. 



Boston and Business 47 

tested Acts of Navigation passed for the benefit 
of England ? So any impertinent inquiry as to the 
number and variety of flags carried would elicit a 
recommendation to attend strictly to the question- 
er's own business. Neither would every obscure 
landing-place be reported ; for the Yankee skipper 
knew that a broad bottom could enter a shallow 
harbor and that a short keel could make a long 
voyage. Had not the Pilgrims come over wintry 
seas in the eighty-foot ^'Mayflower" ? ^ 

In a single year five hundred and forty vessels, 
not including coasters and fishing smacks, cleared 
from the port of Boston, carriers for all the colonies, 
the West Indies, and some parts of Europe, with 
now and then a wanderer to the Orient and an 
estray to the African coast, where New England 
rum was prized above black captives taken in 
tribal war or otherwise, and one cargo could 
always be exchanged for another with great profit 
and little risk, especially when royalty was encourag- 
ing the slave trade. Nor did captains buy their 
ships abroad so often as they sold them there. As 
early as 1738 forty topsail ships had been built in a 
single year in Boston yards, some of them to be 
sold after disposing of their freight. As for masts 
and spars the woods were full of them for home 
use and for export to British navy-yards with the 

1 Smuggling in the eighteenth century was a reputable and 
profitable occupation, practised in England and America. — Bel- 
cher's " First American Civil War," 1,12. 



48 John Hancock 

accompaniments of tgl^and pitch from the pines 
of Maine. The ropewalks of the North End 
supplied cordage, — also a boisterous gang who 
were ready for any radical movement or street 
row, while their political kin, the caulkers, are said 
to have given to primary meetings the name of 
caucuses. 

Across the main wharf on the north side stood a 
long row of warehouses containing consignments 
from ports far and wide ; a queer collection of the 
products of many climes, their diverse odors 
struggling for preeminence, among which the 
pungency of molasses dripping from a thousand 
hogsheads was always attractive to bees, boys, and 
distillers. A million and a quarter gallons of rum 
was the annual product in New England, to be 
flavored with numberless casks of sugar and sundry 
products of the Spice Islands. So important 
was the molasses and sugar trade that the Act of 
Parliament restraining it was a greater grievance 
to the colonists than the Stamp Act itself. In the 
warehouses were casks of choicer liquors, bearing 
strange marks branded on them, and hampers of 
bottles rarer still, as trade and commerce enriched 
the prosperous merchants of the metropolis. Yet 
they were not drunkards nor brewers and concocters 
of adulterated abominations, nor was their trade 
chiefly in spirituous liquors. Gathered from bays 
and shoals along the coast as far north as New- 
foundland were stacks of cured fish, to be shipped 



Boston and Business 49 

to countries which kept their frequent fasts, 
though not after the manner of the New Englander 
in his occasional calls to "fasting, humihation, and 
prayer" when threatened with royal displeasure, 
epidemic, or drought. Besides the export of that 
fish whose image came to surmount the pinnacle 
of the temple where the laws of the Common- 
wealth were made, and to symbolize the principal 
source of its prosperity, there were stores of oil and 
whalebone from near and far-off waters, bales of 
fur from wintry woods, bundles of clapboards, 
laths, and shingles, with such other lumber and 
timber as would not be missed from virgin forests 
and was in demand in depleted lands across the 
sea. In exchange for these domestic superfluities 
came back foreign wares and fabrics of every sort 
and quality, satins and velvets, damasks and 
brocades, services of silver and china, linens for 
the table and wardrobe finer than homespun, and 
such ornate furniture as was found in the stately 
homes of England and France. All this and more 
went in and out the storehouses on Long Wharf or 
its companions, — Scarlett's, Wentworth's, Oliver's, 
Gray's, and Hancock's, as they jutted out from the 
crescent shore like a machicolated border to the 
commercial town.^ But Long Wharf was its pride, 
and up from its pavement ran the principal 
thoroughfare, King Street, now State, to the most 

^ Hancock's wharf, from its position, stretched farther seaward 
than the others. 



50 John Hancock 

important edifice of the colonial period, the Town 
House, where the character of the Province was 
molded far more than in the Parliament Hall of 
Rufus at Westminster, with all its chartering of 
rights and restricting of privileges. 

The town-meeting as an Anglo-Saxon institution 
from the days of the folk-mote to the present is so 
famihar to the inhabitants of the countryside that 
its importance is often forgotten amidst the 
commonplace routine of its doings. There is little 
show of the people's real majesty as they talk and 
toil through the March day on matters of local 
interest mentioned in the warrant ; as, for instance, 
to see if the town will build a bridge or repair a 
road, borrow money or raise its annual tax. Now 
and then more important questions arise which 
are not left as in cities to a governing board, but 
to the mind and vote of each citizen, rich or poor, 
informed or ignorant. The place of meeting thus 
becomes the symbol of corporate will and authority, 
the meeting-house of the town, however many and 
diverse may be its churches. The day when the 
meeting-house served both religious and secular 
purposes had long passed before the town of Boston 
had completed its one hundred and twentieth year, 
in 1750. The great fire of 1711 had destroyed the 
town house of 1657-8, and in rebuilding it the 
next year it was agreed to construct a house to 
accommodate both the town and the colony. 
Damaged by fire in 1747, it was repaired the year 



Boston and Business 51 

following, and is now known as the Old State House. 
In the 1750's it was the head-centre of the town, up 
to which ran the main street from Long Wharf, 
as has been observed. It was a stately edifice for 
its day, a hundred and ten feet in length, thirty- 
eight feet wide, and three stories high, surmounted 
by a tower in three orders of architecture, Tuscan, 
Doric, and Ionic. Its lower floor for more than half 
a century was *'a covered walk for any of the 
inhabitants," an exchange for men of business and 
affairs who were accustomed to assemble there at 
one o'clock every day and discuss informally such 
matters as were uppermost, strike bargains, fore- 
cast the weather, the crops, the fishing, and the 
royal policy. On the next floor were the halls of the 
Great and General Court, and legislative com- 
mittee rooms over these on the third floor. But 
popular sentiment on any measure, from the 
governor's salary to the port bills, and the general 
opinion on any man, from the governor to the 
pirate in the offing, could be ascertained without 
difficulty among the ten pillars which supported 
the halls of legislation, just as the citizens who 
moved around them upheld the government so 
long as the majority — a small one — could endure 
its demands made through ten royal governors in 
the provincial period, from 1692 to 1775.^ 

* Interesting particulars about many of these old-time worthies 
are given in "Dealings with the Dead, by a Sexton of the Old 
School," I, n. 



52 John Hancock 

It was a distinguisilRi succession of men who 
came and went to and from that Town House of 
Boston before and after the restoration of 1748. 
To mention names of representatives to the 
General Court in the decade now under considera- 
tion and the following will be sufficient : Harrison 
Gray, James Bowdoin, William Cooper, John 
Phillips, James Otis, Samuel Adams, Oxenbridge 
Thacher, John Adams, John Hancock, and others 
who were famous men in their day, the pre-revolu- 
tion period. There also were seen the flowing 
robes of judges and lawyers who found plenty of 
business in these stirring times. Divines too 
dropped in at midday, keeping up the tradition 
if not the authority of ministers who ruled with 
magistrates in the Puritan period. No such forum 
can now be found in all the land where men are 
rated and opinions weighed for what they are 
worth. 

It is characteristic of the town that booksellers' 
shops should gather around this focus of its commer- 
cial and political Hfe. Schools and a near-by college 
had made the community one of more than ordinary 
intelHgence and of considerable cultivation. There 
were merchants who had not forgotten their 
Latin and Greek, and who could appreciate a 
classical allusion and quote a line from Virgil or 
Homer. As for Scriptural quotations, they recog- 
nized them when Dr. Byles or Reverend Samuel 
Sewall sprung them upon a public meeting in the 



Boston and Business 53 

original tongues. Educated in these, it is not 
strange that the learned classes created a demand 
for the ancient classics, which constituted a good 
part of booksellers' stocks, to which were added 
the writings of men whose intellectual food had 
been the old hteratures. From the present view- 
point this product was dreary reading, but that 
generation was not ready to accept something 
better from Enghsh sources. It was heroic in its 
mental exercises, its intellectual digestion un- 
impaired by fiction, and its psychic medicines as 
staggering as the nauseous compounds which only 
the fittest survived, and the weak regarded as a 
visitation of Providence. Reading was then one of 
the duties, not a diversion; an ''exercise," not a 
recreation. Accordingly, the writers of Queen 
Anne's reign and later were not largely ordered from 
London agents who were sending every other luxury 
to Boston aristocrats and scholars. They pre- 
ferred Cotton Mather's "Last Discourses in Nature 
with Religious Improvements," the beginning here 
of a drift away from a strictly theological literature. 
But belles-lettres were slow to arrive. Cox's cata- 
logue of "books on all the arts and sciences" for sale 
at the Lamb on the south side of the Town House, 
contained eight hundred titles, largely theological, 
classical, and historical ; but poetry, which for 
the New Englander had been a rehef to his gloom 
or an expression of it, as Young's "Night Thoughts," 
for example, was represented by Prior, Otway, 



54 John Hancock 

Shadwell, and Company ''limited" in genius, and 
by a few copies of Congreve, Wycherley, and Aphra 
Behn which had come over as stowaways and were 
properly regarded as unwholesome aliens and 
unwelcome. An occasional copy of Swift's ''Mis- 
cellanies," the "Tatler," "Guardian" and "Spec- 
tator" might creep in, but, strangely, Shake- 
speare and Milton were not represented in the 
above hst. 

Other booksellers who were established in the 
vicinity of the Town House were in 1750 successors 
of earlier members of the guild ; Samuel Phillips 
in Cornhill, John Checkley " over against the west 
end of the Town House at the sign of the Crown 
and Blue Gate," who was 'prosecuted for calling 
Congregational ministers schismatics in "A Plea 
for the Church of England " ; Benjamin Eliot, under 
the Exchange, James Rivington, of London repute, 
John Mein, who estabUshed the first circulating 
Hbrary, Daniel Henchman, close by at the corner of 
Cornhill, called the most eminent and enterprising 
bookseller that appeared in all British America 
before 1775, a publisher of books printed for him in 
London and Boston, also proprietor of the first 
paper-mill in America. His apprentice and son- 
in-law Thomas Hancock had his bookstore near the 
water in Ann Street by the drawbridge until 1730, 
when he added general merchandise, increased 
his fortune, and became one of the principal com- 
mercial persons of New England. Envious persons 



Boston and Business 55 

asserted that he made the bulk of his fortune by 
importing tea in hogsheads from the Dutch island 
of St. Eustace and selHng it to army posts, paying 
duties upon a few chests only for form's sake. 

This distant view of the commercial and in- 
tellectual aspect of the thriving town twenty years 
before the outbreak against the mother country 
indicates the daily life into which young John 
Hancock entered under the patronage of his pros- 
perous uncle. Doubtless the daily round of it 
was commonplace and tiresome at ledger and letter 
book, among bales and casks, bundles and boxes. 
Yet it was no worse than the life many men were 
leading who became distinguished for something 
more than success in trade. With these townsmen 
he was brought in contact in the market-place, 
on the wharves, and in the streets which ran up the 
slope or crossed these on the amphitheatre side of the 
town facing the harbor. He met them to the most 
profit in the post-prandial stroll and talk on 'change 
at the Town House, in the bookshops where 
Harvard men were sure to be found, and also in 
another building which stood next in importance to 
the one that has been mentioned, Faneuil Hall. 

Peter Faneuil, born in New Rochelle, New 
York, in 1700, Hke John Hancock inherited the bulk 
of his fortime from an uncle, and at the time of his 
death in 1742 was accounted the richest man in 
Boston. His house and grounds on Tremont 
Street, opposite King's Chapel, if they could be 



56 John Hancock 

restored would be the ejivy of dwellers on the Back 
Bay. The fortunate nephew did not fail to keep 
up the grandeur and luxury of his predecessor, 
ordering from London a fortnight after the "gener- 
ous and expensive funeral" a handsome chariot 
with two sets of harness "having the family arms on 
the same." Also five pipes of Madeira, "the best, 
for the use of my house ; and the latest best book 
on cookery, of the largest character, for the benefit 
of the maid's reading." Although he exacted jus- 
tice in settling with his uncle's debtors, and was 
shrewd in continuing his business, he was also 
public spirited and benevolent towards the com- 
munity in which his fortune had been amassed. 

The question of a public market had disturbed the 
old town as much as it does modern cities, with the 
antagonism of private enterprise against general 
convenience. Three market buildings had been 
abandoned and one torn down when Faneuil 
offered to build a creditable one at his own expense, 
and generously enlarged his proposal after it had 
been reluctantly and ungraciously accepted by a 
majority of only seven votes out of seven hundred 
and twenty-seven. It was two years in building; 
but the vote was then unanimous that it was a 
"most generous and noble benefaction." A large 
and distinguished delegation conveyed to the donor 
most hearty thanks for so bountiful a gift with the 
desire to perpetuate his memory by naming it 
Faneuil Hall. This was gratifying to the builder, 



Boston and Business ^y 

and also seasonable; for the first annual town 
meeting held in the spacious edifice was the occasion, 
on March 14, 1742, of delivering his eulogy by John 
Lovell, master of the Latin School, who dwelt upon 
his private charities and pubhc munificence, allud- 
ing to ''this building erected at immense charge, 
for the convenience and ornament of the town, as 
incomparably the greatest benefaction ever yet 
known to our Western shore." For nineteen years 
it was the daily resort of the town in its buying and 
selling on the first floor, and above citizens met 
in the capacity of freemen loyal to the crown, with 
an outlook sometimes on the part of an increasing 
number toward an unrestricted liberty of self-rule. 
This building was burned on the 13th of January, 
1761, and with it the king's portrait which had been 
hung within ; an omen to some that the period of 
loyalty was passing away. The new edifice which 
the town erected after some hesitation became the 
scene of revolutionary debate, and of subsequent 
congratulation, until in 1805 a third story was added 
and the hall widened thirty feet, symboUzing 
the broader views and the rapid growth of the town 
under democracy. The eulogies and discussions 
heard then belong to the later period of indepen- 
dence ; but the first hall and market were in im- 
portance the second meeting-place of the inhab- 
itants during John Hancock's first seven years 
among the business activities of the town, which 
may be considered the years of his apprenticeship 



58 John Hancock 

and preparation for conditions which were to 
follow. ^ 

Life in Boston, however, was not wholly com- 
mercial, a thing entirely of trade, barter, and ship- 
ping. Then as now these were the business of the 
daytime, when the maxims of ^'Poor Richard" 
were quoted and observed by a thrifty people as 
the gospel of wealth ; but when the day was over 
there were diversions in which a town of seven- 
teen thousand inhabitants found rehef from activi- 
ties far less strenuous and wearing than those of 
the present. As competition was moderate, no 
trusts and syndicates crowding the individual trader 
and producer to the wall, extremes of fortune were 
less frequent and Hfe was saner and less feverish 
than it now is. In consequence amusements 
were wholesome, the people contenting them- 
selves with entertainments which did not violate 
somewhat severe ideas that still persisted in the 
shadow of Puritan traditions, which themselves 
had lost much of their original strictness. The 
Sabbath, as they continued to call the first day of 
the week, was kept with restraint from Saturday's 
sunset till Sunday's, but the Thursday lecture was 
not as formerly the chief relaxation of ordinary 
weeks when no tragedy or semi-tragedy was 
enacted on the scaffold or at the whipping-post. 
Complaints were heard that this half-religious, 
half-poHtical lectureship was not attended as of 
yore, and that the times were degenerating; a 



Boston and Business 59 

species of lament which will always be uttered until 
the limit of decline is reached and catastrophe in- 
troduces a new order. 

If it is asked what diversions met the natural 
demand, according to the approach of any genera- 
tion to what is reasonable and wholesome, it may 
be premised that appetites were not jaded and 
palled in the period under consideration. On the 
other hand, it will be borne in mind that Arcadian 
simplicity did not prevail in a seaport town within 
six weeks' sail of London, when citizens of both 
places were going and coming with increasing 
frequency. Moreover, the wealthiest Bostonians 
had their agents and correspondents in the British 
metropoUs, charged to keep them informed of 
society doings, customs, and fashions, which were 
followed here so far as the religious and social 
atmosphere permitted. Again, it must not be 
forgotten that there was a sort of court circle in 
the capital of the Bay Province composed of 
officials representing the crown and government, 
from the royal governor down to the customs officers, 
and from the commander of his majesty's forces 
to the subaltern who wore the glaring uniform of 
the army. Then there were families who were 
loyal supporters and ardent admirers of these 
representatives of royalty, and the lines of social 
distinction between the civil and official upper 
classes were not always sharply drawn. Inter- 
change of courtesies and hospitalities thus became 



6o John Hancock 

a marked feature of ]pgh life, and of lower, too, in 
Boston Town. 

As the political element was symbolized by the 
Town Hall, and the commercial by Faneuil Hall, 
so the social life found its emblem in the stately 
mansion known as the Province House, the official 
residence of the royal governors after 1716, although 
most of them had their country houses in Milton, 
Roxbury, or Cambridge. This lordly edifice of 
five floors had its broad lawn, shady with trees, 
and its terraced gardens running up the declivity 
opposite the old South Church to High Street, 
which ran from Cornhill to Roxbury. Within the 
house was the governor's office and also furnished 
apartments for distinguished guests, with banquet- 
ing rooms where they could meet the aristocracy 
of the province, the few who could grace a royal 
court in costume and manners, in fashions, display, 
and civility. And here and there, radiating from 
"this central scene of the chief pagentries, gayeties, 
and formalities of the king's vice-court in Boston,'' 
which Hawthorne has enshrined in legend, on 
hillsides and within spacious grounds were other 
mansions with wide halls, carved stairways, 
panelled drawing-rooms, and dining rooms whose 
furnishings were the token of abounding hospitahty, 
itself the principal entertainment of an opulent 
minority and many imitators, according to their 
several ability. How lavish good cheer could be 
in a day when appetites were keen and the cost of 



Boston and Business 6i 

provisions small is indicated by the traveller 
Bennett, whose manuscript has been a mine of in- 
formation to writers on this period. According 
to this careful observer Boston was well served 
with everything that the country afforded; meats 
at one and two pence a pound, a haunch of venison 
for half a crown, a good turkey for two shillings, 
one-third the price in London, a goose for ten pence, 
fowls and chickens for two and three pence and 
wild pigeons for three pence a dozen. Fresh cod 
could be had for two pence, and a salmon of fifteen 
pounds for a shilling, and great lobsters for three 
half pence. "As to drink," he says, "they have no 
good beer in this country. Medium wines and rum 
punch are the liquors they drink and cider at three 
shillings a barrel." 

With this enumeration of prices it is noticeable 
that the discussion of the high cost of living as well 
as the cost of high living^ is conspicuously absent. 
On the contrary, the comparison that is frequently 
made with London prices must have induced 
emigration to a land of cheap profusion. The 
poHtical economist will offset these advantages 
with the low price of labor, but it was higher than 
in England then as now, and the two factors to- 
gether promoted immigration in days when no 
passenger agents were painting the glories of 
America in sunset colors of purple and gold. The 
colonist found the abundance real and the crown 
officer found hospitality generous, and its inter- 



62 John Hancock 

change an agreeable ^ersion. Aside from formal 
occasions similar entertainment was furnished 
when ''for their domestic amusement every after- 
noon, after drinking tea, the gentlemen and ladies 
walk in the Mall,^ and from thence adjourn to one 
another's houses to spend the evening, — those 
that are not disposed to attend the evening lecture ; 
which they may do if they please six nights in 
seven the year round." There were also athletic 
sports, riding, hunting, skating; sleigh-rides in 
winter to some country tavern, followed by supper 
and a dance, and in summer excursions down the 
harbor, picnics on the islands, tea-parties in the 
country, and homeward drives by moonlight. 

Beyond these social entertainments of a family 
and friendly character, and the lectures, there was 
not much to call staid folk away from their fire- 
sides, although these were not always comfortable in 
the period of open fireplaces when wood in town 
was one of the most expensive articles of house- 
keeping, though it could be had in the country for 
the cutting. As early as 1717 importing of sea 
coal from Louisburg was considered by the town. 
In the dearth of evening amusements the selectmen 
of Boston did not permit dramatic plays or music 
halls; but a company of "restive persons" set 

* John Hancock helped to adorn it by setting out a row of lime 
trees opposite his estate. He also erected a stand on the Common 
and furnished a band to give concerts on pleasant afternoons. 
— Mary F. Ayer's "Early Days on Boston Common," p. 22. 



Boston and Business 63 

up an assembly, to which some of the ladies re- 
sorted. But they were looked upon as " none of the 
nicest in regard to their reputation"; and there 
was talk of suppressing this movement, so incon- 
gruous to the religious and sober sentiments of a 
part of the community. It persisted, however, 
and ''consisted of fifty gentlemen and ladies of 
fashion in the town." The chronicler adds : 
''They don't seem to be dispirited nor moped for 
want of diversion, but dress and appear as gay as 
courtiers in England on a coronation or birthday. 
And the ladies here visit, drink tea, and neglect 
the affairs of their families with as good grace as 
the finest ladies in London." An account of what 
they wore on great occasions would rival anything 
in the society columns of modern newspapers. 

For rural sports there was shooting in woods 
abounding in game and fishing in streams that 
needed no restocking. Frequent musters of militia 
combined diversion with military duty and display, 
cultivating loyalty to the crown, and unconsciously 
educating a growing people toward eventual inde- 
pendence through strife, of which fanatics only had 
as yet dared to dream. Then there was some 
horseplay in town and country which smacked of 
the rude sports of Old England in an age when the 
finer sensibilities were at a discount. The middle 
and lower classes had their own ways of entertaining 
themselves after the workday was done. Taverns 
were then, as the saloons are now, the club-rooms of 



64 John Hancock 

the commonalty, exc^ that the public house bar- 
room was not avoided by a respectable contingent, 
as the dram-shop now is. Poins and Bardolph, 
sitting on the wall bench, saw an officer, by no 
means a Falstaff, drop in for a drink, and they 
might themselves be invited to take a dram with 
him or some well-to-do tradesman. There were 
hostelries also that were in high favor with the aris- 
tocracy and became noted resorts. The Admiral 
Vernon Tavern down by the water and the Crown 
Coffee House at the lower end of King Street where 
Long Wharf began, the Blue Anchor by Oliver's 
Dock, the Ship Tavern at Clark's Wharf, the Sun 
and the Half Moon and the Golden Ball near by 
were resorts where yarns of seafarers were spun 
for the delectation and astonishment of landsmen. 
Higher up were inns where men of trade and politics 
were accustomed to meet, especially at the Royal 
Exchange by the Town House. Next to this official 
edifice the tavern close by became the head centre 
of the community, dignified after the fire of 1747 
by the temporary sessions of the General Court. 
There also the young bloods of the town ''spent 
their evenings in drinking, gaming, and recounting 
their love affairs." The Masonic fraternity were 
glad to patronize brother Luke Vardy, keeper 
of the inn and its bar. What was sold there might 
have helped start the scrimmage which ended in 
the first bloody encounter of the Revolution, 
called the Massacre, which took place in front of 



Boston and Business 65 

this tavern. It was a favorite haunt of the British 
officers, as was the British Coffee-house, noted 
for the performance of Otway's ^'Orphans," which 
caused a law to be enacted in 1758 against stage 
plays. The Bunch of Grapes in King Street 
was the rallying-place of Whigs when rebellion 
was.rising ; and here the first grand lodge of Masons 
was organized on July 20, 1733, by Henry Price, a 
Boston tailor, who had received authority from 
Lord Montague, Grand Master of England. The 
Blue Anchor around the corner had always been 
a resort of the magistrates and clergy, who were 
usually cheek by jowl in poKtical and social af- 
fairs and gave official and professional dignity 
to the old inn. Among Chief Justice Sewall's 
notes in his diary this one is often recurring, — 
" The deputies treated and I treated." On civil 
and ecclesiastical occasions of importance clerical 
and lay dignitaries together ran up an imposing 
score for wines and spirits, relieving and enlivening 
their normal solemnity. 

In political distinction the Green Dragon in 
Union Street surpassed all the rest. It was at 
this tavern that the promoters of revolt against 
British domination enlisted useful alhes from 
shipyards, ropewalks, and docks. Here were held 
caucuses which were managed by a few leading 
politicians like Sam Adams and Dr. Warren, who 
gave to some master mechanic the honor of pre- 
siding, and thus won the favor of his guild. There 



66 John Hancock 

is reason to believe th^the last meeting held there 
hatched the plot to destroy the tea, as afterward 
the club changed its headquarters. 

There were other clubs, meeting at other taverns 
and at private houses, as relations between the 
province and the crown became strained. The 
radical doings of the Sons of Liberty may not have 
been helped on by their meeting in the ofhce of a 
distillery, but these democratic mechanics were in 
dangerous proximity to an unfailing source of 
bravado and disorder. Some of their lawlessness 
and vandaHsm had best be accounted for and ex- 
cused on the ground of patriotic zeal being inflamed 
by artificial stimulants; the wanton destruction 
of Governor Hutchinson's collections of art and 
Kterature, for example. 

All together the fifty or more taverns, inns, and 
coffee-houses which were thriving in Boston in the 
eighteenth century indicate the social and festive 
disposition of its citizens, or perhaps the recognized 
need of counteracting chilly winds in their possi- 
ble effect upon character. Taking them together, 
their stately dinners, evening assemblies, afternoon 
tea drinkings, tavern routs, and such lectures as 
were provided from Sunday to Saturday for the 
sober-minded, it may be concluded that the in- 
habitants of the provincial capital were not far 
behind London itself in the variety and manner 
of their entertainments, the drama excepted. 

This outhne of commercial, poUtical, and social 



Boston and Business 67 

Boston may help one to understand the life which a 
young man of fortune and fashion led in the middle 
of the eighteenth century. RepubKcan ideas were 
not yet common, even if democratic manners here 
and there prevailed along the wharves, in ship- 
yards, and to some extent in the countryside. 
There were grmnbhngs and complaints enough 
against royal governors, but tokens of respect and 
forms of loyalty persisted, with much evasion of 
laws which restricted and oppressed. Besides, 
there was always the controlling power of the 
aristocracy, loyal to the crown and on terms with 
its deputies and officials ; the class which made the 
unwritten laws of fashion in sentiment as well as in 
costume and custom ; the folk who were not ready 
to contemplate changes from bad to worse, from 
known conditions to those unknown, uncertain, and 
untried. In this circle was Thomas Hancock's 
nephew, with no revolutionary notions in his head 
as yet, going to his business apprenticeship as to a 
graduate school day by day, prominent in the gaye- 
ties of his set, flattered no doubt by queenly dames 
and smiled upon by fair daughters, whose fathers 
could not disapprove of an exemplary young man, 
prospective heir to a large business, fortune, and 
the lordliest mansion on Beacon Hill with its 
crowning acres, to warehouse, stores, and wharf, 
with ships in the harbor and on the seas. 



CHAPTER V 



IN LONDON 



This routine of business and round of social life 
was continued for six years. At the expiration 
of this term of practical apprenticeship Thomas 
Hancock had seen enough of the young man's 
fidelity and capacity to warrant further preparation 
for the growing responsibilities that were likely 
to fall upon his nephew at his own decease. In 
the close and constant relations of American trade 
to the controllers of it in Great Britain it was of 
advantage to know as much as possible of foreign 
methods and of the lords of trade and fmance. 
Something could be learned by correspondence and 
from agents, but more by personal acquaintance 
and presence in the metropolis. Accordingly 
Thomas tiancock determined to send his nephew to 
London in 1760, he being then twenty- three years of 
age and a most presentable young man. There is 
no evidence, however, that there were ''melting 
persuasions and wonderful melting assurances from 
the Lord that he must go to England," such as In- 
crease Mather had on a certain occasion, and which 
others have had since his day. To prepare the way 
for him the uncle wrote to his London agents: — 



In London 69 

u qj,j^tn. Boston, May 21,1 760. 

''I have given my Nephew Mr. John Hancock, who has 
been with me many years in Business an oppor'y of Going 
to London to see my Friends & Settle my Acc'ts with whom 
they are open, & he has Taken his Passage in Capt Patten 
on board the ship Benjamin & Samuel, will Sail in about Ten 
days from this date, by him I shall write you again, & I am 
to desire you to be so kind as to provide him with good 
Lodgings where you think will be most convenient for him 
with Reputable people, he goes with Gov'r Pownall, and 
on his Return I propose to Take him in a Partner with me 
in Business. Should he be Taken on his Passage & Carried 
to France or else where I have given him leave to draw upon 
you for what money he may want. I desire you will please 
to pay his Bills & charge the same to my Acc't 

*' I am Gent'n Your most obed't & Humb Serv 

"Thos Hancock" 

"You will Supply my Nephew Mr. John Hancock what 
money he may want for expenses in England & answer such 
Bills as I may Draw upon you from hence. 

"Messrs Kilby Barnard & Parker 
" Merchants London." ^ 

On May 23 he wrote another letter to them in 
which he remarked, ''He is a sober Modest Young 
Gentleman." The substance of the above letter 
was also written to Treothick, Apthorp, and 
Thomlinson, and to Wright and Gill, Hungerford 

1 In this and the following five extracts from letters the author is 
indebted to the Librarian of the New England Historic Genealogi- 
cal Society for the privilege of copying unpublished manuscript 
material from the Letter Books of Thomas and John Hancock 
in the possession of the Society. 



70 John Hancock 

Spooner, Thomas Lan^^homas Griffiths, Thomas 
Bristol, and William Jones, London. 

The following letter of June 7, to ''John Pownall, 
Esq'r, Secre'y," fixes the date of sailing and price 
of passage. 

"Sir. Inclosed you have a letter for your Brother and 
his Excellency Gov'r Pownall, who embarked on board the 
Ship Benjamin and Samuel Capt. Patten, 2d Inst., and I 
wish you may have a happy Sight of him before this reaches 
you. the Winds have proved Contrary for three Days past, 
which gave Mrs. Hancock & me great uneasiness, but hope 
all is well. . . . you have likewise a Rec't for one hundred 
& fifty Pounds Sterling paid Mr. Benj'a Hallo well owner 
of the Ship Benjamin and Samuel for his Passage to London, 
all which I am desired by your good Brother to forward you." 

In a letter to John, June 14, he wrote : — 

"After you sailed we had E. & N.E. Winds & Dirt. Mrs. 
Hancock was very uneasy, I told her all was well, Our best 
Respects to Gov'r Pownall, hope to hear you had a good 
Passage. This goes by way of Lisbon." 

The next day he wrote to Kilby, Barnard, and 
Parker : — 

"Should he not arrive in any Reasonable Time, or be 
Taken I desire you to open his Letter, & procure Payment 
of the Bills there Inclosed." 

To John, July 5: — 

"Let me know who Receives you with Respect. Write 
me how the World goes on yt Side of the Water, be frugal 
of Expences, do Honor to your Country & furnish Your 
Mind with all wise Improvements. Keep the Pickpockets 
from my Watch. God bless you & believe me, Your Loving 
Uncle." 



In London 71 

After three months his anxiety was over, as 
Governor Pownall had written him on July 12 
of their arrival ; to whom he wrote on the 24th of 
September : — 

"I have great Pleasure in hearing of your Safe Arrival in 
England. We return your Excellency many Thanks for 
your great Civilitys to Mr. Hancock he writes me fully of it, 
& gratefully Acknowledges your many favors to him. I am 
much obliged to you also." 

He wrote John to get 

"a present worth 2 or 3 guineas for Mrs. Lydia Bastide in 
Mrs. Hancock's name, with her love to her & our compli- 
ments to the Family; but by no means Lodge there." 

Foreign travel and residence abroad were more 
common in the years of colonial dependence than 
at a later period when independent citizens of 
America were not free from unpleasant sentiments 
occasioned by separation from the old home. Sons 
of prosperous famihes saw something of Oxford 
and Cambridge in supplementing their education, 
and other sons were sent on business errands or 
for informing travel. Packets were slower than 
modern steamers, but the times were less strenuous 
and six weeks then were as six days now. 

In these forty days the young man would not 
have an altogether dreary voyage, and he certainly 
had good company, since his uncle had been able 
to place him in charge of Governor Pownall,^ who, 

1 !* Governor Pownall was treated with all possible respect 
when he embarked, both Houses of Legislature accompanying 
him to his barge." — "Thomas Pownall," by C. A. W, Pownall, 
London, 190S, p. 159, 



72 John Hancock 

on his return home a^j^r three years of strong and 
discreet service in the Bay Colony, was to be con- 
tinued in office as Keutenant-governor of New 
Jersey and governor of South Carolina, all to be 
followed by a distinguished career in parliament, 
where he opposed the measures of the government 
against the colonies. In such a man's company 
the young American had an opportunity to learn 
useful things about the land which colonists still 
called the ^'old home," and it is easy to imagine 
that social advantages Were made available to the 
creditable Bostonian on his arrival in the metrop- 
olis. As to other features of the voyage, the 
drinks would be better than the meats, and reading 
might be as heavy as the copy of Erasmus which 
Judge Sewall took to enliven the long days at sea 
some years before. 

Arrived in London, there was enough to interest 
an American in a city of 650,000 inhabitants. 
The Seven Years' War was over ; an empire in the 
East had been won at Plassey, and another in the 
West on the Plains of Abraham, with the French 
driven from the field of Minden, and their fleet 
ruined at Quiberon Bay. Victory had followed the 
English flag in every quarter of the globe. Old Eu- 
rope was passing into the modern, and a new nation 
was beginning to evolve out of chaos in the Ameri- 
can wilderness. Just then it was Great Britain's 
most valuable dependency, and the nation, supreme 
on land and sea, with London as its capital, had 



In London 73 

every reason to congratulate itself in the year 
1760.^ 

On the 25 th of October the king, in whose reign 
so much had been accomphshed, fell dead, and his 
grandson succeeded him as George the Third. 
At the funeral John Hancock was a spectator and 
saw the regal display in the day of England's 
supremacy. He could look upon the new king with 
whom he was to have trouble some years later, 
but his majesty would not have beHeved that a 
young man from one of the colonies could give 
him annoyance in the future more than in the hour 
of his own and the nation's pride. Nor did the 
provincial himself dream of such a possibihty. 
Like all colonists visiting the mother country he 
would be profuse in expressions of loyalty, and duly 
impressed with a royal pomp which the present 
generation has witnessed in two funeral processions 
within a dozen years. 

George the Second had ended his reign with honor 
to himself and the nation, with a united ministry 
and an empire encircHng the globe. His successor 
ascended the throne under more favorable cir- 
cumstances than any predecessor of the house had 
enjoyed. With his birth in England prejudice 
against his family as foreign born ceased. He had 
none of the vices which strained respect for royalty 

* An interesting contemporary account of the capture of Quebec 
is given by Chaplain Cotton in a letter to Grenville, September 20, 
1759, in "Grenville Correspondence," i, 325. 



74 John Hancock 

in some of his ancestor^ Parties and factions had 
been absorbed in a general harmony, having found 
a leader in Pitt, who presided over the councils 
of the nation with the prestige of genius. Further 
conquest or peace was within the choice of the 
new king, and general support would have been 
accorded any measure within the people's power. 
It was high noon at the Court of St James. Horace 
Walpole says that "a passionate, domineering 
woman, and a favorite without talents drew a 
cloud over this shining prospect." The woman 
was the king's mother, who had never ceased to 
iterate to the Prince of Wales, ''Be king, George, 
be king!" The favorite was the Scotch John 
Stuart, third Earl of Bute, Groom of the Stole, 
whom his royal master named for the Cabinet 
at the first meeting of the Council. And the 
king's first speech was for ''a bloody and expensive 
war to obtain an honorable and lasting peace," 
the stale plea of barbarism. It took twenty-four 
hours of appeal by Pitt, Mansfield, and other wise 
counsellors before the royal George would allow 
the spoken words to be printed for public reading 
in the softened form of ''an expensive but just 
and necessary war, and an honorable peace in 
concert with our allies." He was trying to observe 
his mother's command, with which he was in full 
sympathy. Besides, he had a will of his own, an 
obstinacy which in a king was dignified as firmness. 
When he talked of royal prerogative, more and more 



In London 75 

popular jealousy began to spring up. ''No petti- 
coat government, no Scotch favorite" was placarded 
at the Royal Exchange and at Westminster Hall. 
The unwashed mob in the streets and theatres made 
gross and insulting remarks to and about George 
and his domineering mother, who in vain pleaded to 
be declared Princess Mother, a title for which there 
was no precedent, although it was deserved by 
reason of her son's obsequiousness to her. 

It would be strange if the alert American did not 
read the posters and hear much discussion of the 
new king's unpopular subjection. He would also 
learn of his first address to Parliament, long and dull, 
written by Lord Harwicke and amended by Pitt. 
He would hear that the royal revenue had been 
fixed at £800,000 a year, and would think it was a 
Kberal allowance to a king who travelled Httle, as 
£50,000 was to his counselling mother, who had 
obtained £10,000 more from her son in addition to 
£4,000 from her Duchy of Cornwall, although she 
was living in parsimonious privacy, and succeeded 
in keeping her son almost inaccessible. As for the 
favorite, Bute, he had the money drawn from the 
Electorate of Hanover entirely under his direction. 

It is not to be supposed that the young Bostonian 
had so much concern about the home policy and 
affairs of the king and the composition of his 
Cabinet as about his colonial rule and the advice 
of his ministers. The interference of his predeces- 
sors had been so slight that colonists had become 



76 John Hancock 

accustomed to practical freedom in the manage- 
ment of their affairs, and the only question that 
would disturb the American would be, Will this 
freedom continue under the new regime ? At 
first, however, he would be diverted by the pageants 
and processions which the populace witnessed in the 
year of his sojourn at the capital ; the funeral of 
the second George, obsequies which were repeated 
for the fourth time in 19 10, just one hundred and 
fifty years later, with solemn pomp and sincerer 
mourning. 

On October 29, 1760, he wrote his step-father : — 

"I am very busy in getting myself mourning upon the 
Occasion of the Death of his late Majesty King George the 
2d, to which every person of any Note here Conforms even 
to the deepest mourning. . . . Every thing here is now 
very dull. All Plays are stopt and no Diversions are going 
forward, so that I am at a loss how to dispose of myself. 
On Sunday last the Prince of Wales was proclaim'd King 
thro' the City with great Pomp and Joy. ... I am not 
more particular in the Circumstances of the King's Death, 
as I imagine you will have the Accounts long before this 
Reaches you." 

He also complains to his step-father that he has 
received no replies to several letters he has written 
him and adds: — 

"I much long to hear of my Mother, has she her health 
pray write me particularly, to whom present my most Duti- 
full Regards, and Acqaint her I am very well and hope to 
have the pleasure of seeing her by next June or sooner." 

His brother Ebenezer evidently treated him 



In London 77 

better, as on the 27th of December he wrote in 
reply to a letter sent seven weeks before : — 

" I have before me your agreeable letter of November 6th 
by Capt. Bride, and desire you will write me by every oppor- 
tunity, and acquaint me more particularly with the Cir- 
cumstances of my Uncle's Family. I am Glad to hear that 
you are well, and earnestly beg you will give great attention 
to business and let your Conduct be such as to merit the 
Esteem of all about you, and remember that the Diligent 
Hand maketh Rich. I Expect on my Return to find you 
a Compleat Merchant. 

"I observed by your letter our Sister is married, and 
that you were with them at the Celebration of it, I wish 
them great Happiness and satisfaction, and hope they will 
meet with nothing to Interrupt their Quiet, they have my 
best wishes. . . . 

"I have lately been ill, but am upon the Recovery, hope 
soon to get abroad again. 

"Tell Hannah that at Mr. Barnard's where I am ill, is a 
young woman who is Remarkably Tender and Kind to me 
in my illness, and often brings her to my mind; that I am as / 
well attended to as I could ever desire, and that I am very 
well off, but had much rather be ill, if I must be so, where 
my Aunt and she is, But that this young woman is exactly 
the Image of her in Respect of a good and tender Nurse." ^ 

To his uncle he wrote on January 14, 1761, a 
letter which shows what a faithful correspondent 
he was, saying that on his arrival he wrote *'by the 
Packett" and since by thirteen other ships. The 
uncertainty of letters reaching their destination 
is indicated by the remark : — 

* For the full text of these three abridgments see "Mass. Hist. 
See. Proceedings," XLiii, 193-200. 



78 John Hancock 

"I am very sorry that I have been so unlucky in Regard 
to my Letters not Reachi^^you, and never Intended to be 
Remiss in that Respect, and should you Receive all my 
Letters I am well Satisfied you and my Aunt will not Think 
me Blameable." 

The next letter is largely about business affairs in 
Nova Scotia, with a note of personal interest toward 
the end of it as follows : — 

"I observe in your Letter you mention a Circumstance 
in Regard to my Dress. I hope it did not Arise from your 
hearing I was too Extravagant that way, which I think they 
can't Tax me with. At same time I am not Remarkable 
for the Plainess of my Dress, upon proper Occasions I dress 
as Genteel as any one, and can't say I am without Lace. 
I Endeavor in all my Conduct not to Exceed your Expecta- 
tions in Regard to my Expences, but to Appear in Charac- 
ter I am Obliged to be pretty Expensive. I find Money 
some way or other goes very fast, but I think I can Reflect 
it has been spent with Satisfaction and to my own honour. 
I fear if you was to see my Tailor's Bill, you would think I 
was not a very plain Dressing person. I endeavour to be 
in Character in all I do, and in all my Expences, which are 
pretty large I have great Satisfaction in the Reflection of 
their being incurrd in Honorable Company and to my 
Advantage. I shall be mindfull to send by the first Oppor- 
tunity the Mitts for my Aunt and the Shoes for you, with 
a Cane if I can meet one Suitable. I wish to hear that the 
Things I sent for you and my Aunt proved Satisfactory. 
I imagine many of my Letters have Reached you before 
this, and long to hear from you on the Subject of my Tarry 
here. 

"We have no News. Things seem very quiet. The 
King is very popular and much Beloved. I hear he has 
sent a Message to the House desiring he may be Enabled 



In London 79 

to Reimburse the Colonies the Expence of Raising and 
Cloathing the Troops. 

"As I had but one hour's Notice of this Ship's SaiHng, 
and must beg your Excuse for the ill Connection of my 
Letter, I shall write you very particular by Capt Ochterlony 
who goes for York next week. 

"The former part of my Letter was wrote some Time ago, 
but the latter in great haste, as the Vessel was under sail." 

The winter was passing into spring, and the lonely 
couple on Beacon Hill were pining for Johnny, 
as the uncle familiarly calls him. He is having 
struggles in his mind whether to call him home or 
allow him time to see more of Great Britain. In 
one of his letters he writes : — 

"As to your going to Scotland, use your own Prudence. 
I want you much if it can be done without loss of time & 
without great expence. I fear aunt and I am much con- 
cerned for you ! we are sorry to hear that you have been 
Confined, she longs to have you at home & so do I, and 
Indeed I want you much." ^ 

It was the nth of July, however, before the 
following letter promised his departure: — 

"Honored Sir, 

"I have not Time as I am Engag'd in preparing for 
my Voyage to write a long Letter, and this is a saving 
way, that I can only Acquaint you I long since Agreed 
with Captain Jacobson for a passage, and Expected by 
this to have been half way to Boston, but unexpected De- 
tentions have Arisen, both with Respect to want of Goods 

* From Manuscript Letter Book in the possession of the New 
England Historic and Genealogical Society. 



8o John Hancock 

and Convoy, however, can now say I am in great hopes we 
shall soon sail, she falls dqpn the river on Tuesday, and I 
shall set out for Portsmouth by Land on Thursday, and if 
we are not Detained there in waiting for Convoy, shall in a 
Week be on our Passage, which in Compliance with your 
orders, I am very earnest for, and my assiduous Endeavours 
have not been wanting to get a Passage sooner, but hope 
all's for the best. The Difficulty of Transporting Baggage 
from hence to Falmouth prevented my going in the Packett 
to York. 

*' You will please to present my most Dutifull Regards 
to my Dear Aunt Mrs. Hinchman, and Respectfull Compli- 
ments to all my Friends, with whom I hope to be soon. 

"My Earnest wishes for your Health and Happiness, 
Concludes me in great haste, with the utmost Gratitude, 
Honored Sir, Your most obliged and most Dutifull Nephew. 

"My Things are all going on board on Monday." ^ 

It was at first expected that the coronation would 
take place in April, of which Hancock wrote, " It is 
the grandest sight I shall ever meet with." But it 
was postponed until after the king's marriage to 
Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, whose arrival 
stirred the curiosity of all London on the 7 th of 
September.^ A fortnight later the whole city was 

^ "Mass. Hist. See. Proceedings," xliii, 200. 

2 The law of the crown naturalizing a foreign princess married 
to the King, her jointures and house of residence is stated in the 
"Grenville Correspondence," 11, 400. As to the question about 
the king's preference for another woman, see the "Life and 
Letters of Lady Sarah Lennox," 2 vols., passim. Walpole's quill 
anticipated the fountain pen in its flow of court gossip for the 
delectation of the Earl of Stratford, Hon. Henry Seymour, Sir 
Horace Mann, and others. See "Walpole's Letters," p. 771, 
et seq. 



In London 8l 

agog over the coronation procession, to see which 
£2,400 was paid for a platform outside the Abbey, 
and more inside, while the throngs in the street 
were gaping at the new coach costing £8,000, 
gorgeous with tritons and palm trees. They were 
not so much concerned with appointments to this 
office and that, as that Mr. Grenville, Secretary of 
State, and Lord Halifax of the Admiralty had ex- 
changed places; that Fox was technically leader 
of the House of Commons for the king, and Pitt, 
ousted by the favorite Bute's influence from the 
Secretaryship of State was the tribune of the people 
in the House and chief orator of the nation. The 
mob, sometimes called the Third House of Parlia- 
ment, cared less for the disputes of Lords Rocking- 
ham, Pembroke, and Holderness than to see the 
three Cherokee chiefs from South Carolina, on a 
vacation trip to London, a sight that was not un- 
familiar to a New Englander, except in the pattern 
of their war-paint. Nor would the tax-paying 
traders of the city bewail the peace with Spain 
so much as Pitt, whose determination to weaken 
Bourbon hopes and to strengthen England was 
upset, to the later sorrow of king and minister. 
The people could not see beyond increased tax 
rates the greater glory. Much more evident to 
them was the temper of the greatest mob that 
London had seen for forty years when a copy of the 
scurrilous John Wilkes's ''North Briton" was or- 
dered to be burnt by the hangman, because it had 



82 John Hancock 

accused the king of falsehood; with which charge 
mud-slingers had unse^ly sympathy ; also people 
as high up as the mayor and magistrates of the 
city, so unpopular had the Bute ministry become.^ 
Wilkes, too, failed to reap the reward of his services 
in reformatory directions through the folly of 
writing his ^' Essay on Woman," which would have 
been the scandal of the town, as it was of Parlia- 
ment, if its dozen copies had not been suppressed 
and the author disgraced. There were lesser sub- 
jects of gossip that interested the newsmongering 
court and seeped down through several layers of 
the society which then existed, to explode finally in 
effigy, bonfire, and riot when the lowest stratimi was 
reached. 

For an educated and observing man from the 
principal town of New England one object of inter- 
est would be the statesman to whom more than 
any other was due the honor of England's unexam- 
pled prosperity. William Pitt, before he became 
Earl of Chatham, towered above lords and lord- 
Hngs, poKticians and courtiers, and the Georges 
themselves, with all the stage company which 
acted the drama of which he alone was protagonist. 
Educated in the classic methods that marked the 
revival of oratory, he entered Parliament at the 
age of twenty-six. Within a year he was recognized 

1 For an account of the Forty-fifth Number of the "North 
Briton" see Walpole's "Memoirs of George Third's Reign," chap- 
ter XIX. 



In London 83 

as the champion of the middle classes now rising 
into importance. With matchless eloquence he 
opposed the Hanoverian policy of George the 
Second and afterwards the entire ministry, despite 
which the king was compelled, after trying others, 
to transfer the government to him as the ablest 
man in the realm. The Great Commoner became 
Prime Minister in 1756. Unseated within a year, 
and recalled by the people's demand, he began a 
career which raised England from its insular limi- 
tations and the brink of ruin to supremacy among 
the nations. In Europe, Asia, Africa, and America 
victory followed victory over France, the ubiquitous 
foe, and the nation was in sight of the mountain- 
top of miHtary glory. Then the jealousy, ob- 
stinacy, and folly of the king and his minister Bute 
let the triumphal car go backward with consequent 
losses to the new empire, of which the American 
colonies were the first. 

It was a piece of the good fortune that commonly 
attended John Hancock that he should be in 
London during the apical year of Pitt's ascendency. 
Associating with the tradesmen of the city, he heard 
their praises of the man who was lifting them into 
new and unwonted importance. He would have 
been the dullard that he was not if he did not hear 
the first and greatest orator of an eloquent group in 
some of his celebrated speeches, like that one on the 
excise bill with its defence of the poor man's house 
as his castle, which the storm might enter but not 



84 John Hancock 

the king himself, unbidden. From this attempt 
of Bute's to tax the jUbple of England, against 
which Pitt was arguing, it was but a step to the pro- 
posal to make the colonies help pay the cost of 
all the new possessions. British merchants who 
had urged Pitt to take double the loans he asked 
refused his successor their contributions. If they 
had any sympathy with taxing Americans they did 
not show it by wilHngness to be taxed themselves, 
nor could they expect fellow-subjects three thousand 
miles away to surpass themselves in loyalty to a 
government that had weakly let its grand oppor- 
tunity slip away. Nor could some of its statesmen 
blame Americans later for opinions rife among 
the people of England.^ 

In the absence of any written record of what young 
Hancock saw beyond the king and court — at which 
there is a tradition that he was presented, and that 
he received a snuff-box from his majesty — it is 
fair to suppose that there were few events of im- 
portance in the year of his stay in which he had 
not sufficient interest to go as far out of his way to 
observe as the average Londoner.^ Moreover, 
there were questions intimately affecting the com- 
mercial relations between two countries about which 

^ Other defenders of the colonists were Burke, Fox, Pownall, 
Rose Fuller, Admiral Byng, and some of less note. 

2 In the book world "Tristam Shandy," published in April and 
commended by Bishop Warburton, was the talk of the town in 
1760. The first of "Ossian's Poems" were issued in July of that 
year. 



In London 85 

he was sent abroad to inform himself for the benefit 
of the firm of which he was to become a member on 
his return. And although his loyalty might be 
strengthened rather than diminished by his resi- 
dence in the capital, he would discover a spirit 
of free criticism there which might surprise the 
citizens of provincial Boston, and encourage their 
protests against taxation and make less obsequious 
their professions of devotion. At all events he must 
have had an inside view of the situation before he 
sailed for home — which may help explain what 
has seemed to some an unaccountable conversion 
on his part from sentiments that prevailed among 
the aristocracy of Boston for the next ten years. 
At least he could not have come home with un- 
bounded confidence in the policy of George the 
Third and his advisers.^ Nor had his stay in 
London diminished his regard for the contrasting 
character of his native country. In a letter to 
his step-father he wrote in the spring of 1761 : — 

"I shall with satisfaction bid adieu to this grand place 
with all its pleasurable enjoyments and tempting scenes 
for more substantial pleasure which I promise myself in the 
enjoyment of my friends in America." 

1 The inherited impression regarding George III, gathered from 
ballads, revolutionary documents, and early histories, will be modi- 
fied by such recent historical works as Rose's "William Pitt and 
National Revival," Fortescue's "British Statesmen of the Great 
War," Trevelyan's "George III and Charles Fox," in which the 
King's faults and his virtues are sanely dealt with. 



CHAPTER VI 



BACK TO BOSTON 



Before the 17 th of October, 1761, Hancock had 
returned to his home and uncle, as mentioned in a 
note of the latter of the above date written to Jona- 
than Barnard of London, one of his agents and a gov- 
ernor of the Magdalen Charity. It gives a hint of 
the writer's benevolence and of the reading which 
interested a Boston merchant at that time. 

"Dear Sir: At my Return from Church, I found on the 
Table the Rev'd Mr. Dodd's Excellent Sermon, preached 
at the Anniversary Meeting of the Governors of the Magda- 
len Charity, in March last, Which my Nephew had Just 
Receiv'd. I read it with great pleasure. . . . and Desire 
that you will please to pay out of the first money you may 
Receive from me, Seventy Guineas, my subscription to the 
Magdalen Charity & charge to my Account." 

The gift shows the relationship which a large- 
minded merchant recognized as existing between 
loyal colonists and the home city, as it was still con- 
sidered by subjects of the crown. Their charities 
were nearer than those in the far East, and a worthy 
cause in London appealed to them with the interest 
of home missions. 

One year from the first of January following his 



Back to Boston 87 

return the nephew was admitted to copartner- 
ship with his uncle. Notice of this transaction was 
sent to his British agents in the letter of the same 
day. 

"Boston, January ist, 1763. 

* " Gent'n : I am to acquaint you that I have at last Got 
my affairs into such a Scituation, as that I have this Day 
Taken my Nephew Mr, John Hancock, into Partnership 
with me, having had long Experience of his Uprightness & 
great Abilities for Business, as that I can heartily Recom- 
mend him to Your Friendship and Correspondence, which 
wish may be long & happy. . . . Goods I have wrote for, 
be Charged to Thomas Hancock & Company. . . . 

"I wish You the Compliments of the Season, & am with 
much Respect 

"Your most Obed't Serv't 

"Thomas Hancock." ^ 

It is desirable to observe the commercial and 
political conditions which prevailed when the 
junior member found himself in the new and re- 
sponsible position of partner in a firm of which a 
large warehouse and several smaller stores were 
the signs on land, and half a dozen ships on the 
sea. Restricted by British enactments from manu- 
facturing, and their farming unprofitable, enter- 
prising New Englanders resorted to trade in fish, 
fur, lumber, oil, and rum, with an incidental 
carrying-business that made the successful rich 
according to the standards of the period. Letters 
to London agents in 1763 reveal particulars of the 

1 Facsimile in A. E. Brown's "John Hancock, His [Letter] 
Book," p. 14. 



88 John Hancock 

Hancocks' commercial affairs, as when on May 6 
they write : — 

"We desire you will please ship us Fifteen or Twenty 
Tons of best Petersburg Brack Hemp. This we want for 
whale Warps & must be of the very best quality." 

On June 7 their agency in building a small 
vessel for the London trade is seen : — 

"To be a ship of 160 Tons & think to call her the 'Boston 
Packett,' to be Launched by the middle of September, 
every thing to be done in the best manner. ... A prime 
going ship, handsome and to carry well, plain but neat for 
the London trade." 

With the primeval forests not far away it seems 
strange that the Hancocks imported sea coal from 
England, but its flame was considered a luxury in 
fashionable houses, although the firm expresses 
regret to Mr. Benj. Birkbeck that "Coals fetch 
no better price, the town being well suppHed." To 
London they soon after send ''119 casks of sperm 
oil, 172 of whale oil, white and sweet, far pref- 
erable to what is commonly at your market, 
and you may recommend it as such. The cost 
is £1436. 14. 4 lawful money." 

Cargoes were mixed then as now, and with orders 
for coals, pork, and butter went this : — 

"Our J. H. asks the favor that Mr. Harrison will please 
get made and send him i neatt Bag wig & i neatt Bob wig. 
Fashionable & of a light color. . . . The cost of them he 
will charge in his little acc'tt with J. H." 

This is only a fraction of the entire outfit of 
nephew John, who was probably the best dressed 



Back to Boston 89 

young man in Boston. His taste was correct, 
his judgment of quality unsurpassed, and his 
knowledge of fashions in London aided by recent 
residence there. A gold-laced coat of broadcloth, 
red, blue, or violet, a white satin waist-coat, 
embroidered ; velvet breeches, green, lilac, blue or 
some other harmonious color ; white silk stockings, 
and shoes flashing with buckles of silver or gold; 
linen trimmed with lace, made the prosperous young 
merchant outshine the more dignified but equally 
rich costume of his opulent senior, and helped to 
illumine the streets of Boston in an age which was 
putting off the sombre tints of the Puritan period. 
Other luxuries are disclosed in lading bills and 
orders, as in July, 1764: "Please send an Eider 
down Quilt, a good one, about 9 or 10 guineas value, 
as it is for our T. H.'s own use in the Gout. . . . 
and Ten Groce of best Quart Champaigne Bottles, 
for our own use.'^ The connection between these 
articles is close and logical ; for it was not the first 
order of champagne and kindred spirits, and ex- 
plains an event which followed in less than a 
month when|rhomas Hancock, on August i, 1764, 
died of apoplexy, leaving £10,000, his mansion and 
upland acres to his widow, and to his nephew his 
warehouses, ships, and the residue of his estate.^ 

^ The voluminous will of Thomas Hancock, dated March 5, 
1763, giving "all the Residue of my whole Estate real, personal, or 
mixed to my nephew John Hancock to dispose of as he thinks 
proper," etc., is the "Chamberlain MS.," No. 233, Boston Public 
Library. 



go John Hancock 

It remained only to order a funeral in keeping with 
his commercial consequence and his social position. 
His escutcheon was d!i^)layed over the balconied 
entrance to his house, the rooms were darkened, 
mourning gloves and rings were distributed, the 
deceased was eulogized, and the procession honored 
by fellow dignitaries in the town and province. A 
distinguished citizen, successful, benevolent, and 
respected had departed; but his wisdom had 
provided for the continuance of ^ his business, and 
that the stately home should remain in the family. 
The widow was still its mistress, a woman with 
clear notions of what belonged to her condition 
and place, with a distinct matrimonial purpose 
for her desirable nephew amidst the allurements 
and schemes of the large circle in which he was 
a most conspicuous and available person. 

At present, however, his business affairs were 
uppermost. Values amounting to seventy thou- 
sand pounds sterHng had been left him with the 
responsibility of an extensive import and export 
trade at a time when embarrassments were multi- 
plying.^ He addressed himself at once to its details, 
writing his London agents within a fortnight that he 

1 "Hancock was made neither giddy, arrogant,'nor profligate by 
his inheritance, but continued in regularity, industry, and mod- 
eration. Great numbers of people received employment at his 
hands, and in all his commercial transactions he exhibited a fair 
and liberal character. He had a knowledge of business, facility 
in despatching it, and a ready insight into the characters of men." 
— Tudor's "Life of ®tis," pp. 262, 267. 



Back to Boston 91 

proposes "to carry on the business, as with my late 
uncle, by myself, of which I shall write you more 
hereafter," notifying them at the same time of a 
shipment of potashes, enclosing a custom-house 
certificate of several cargoes of oil and whalebone, 
congratulating himself that he can have what oil 
he pleases of the best men in Nantucket, and that 
the plan sundry parties had of engrossing the 
whole oil trade would not be effectual, since he had 
determined to increase rather than lessen his con- 
cern in it, '^ which of course takes from the other 

Channell and is very discouraging to Mr. R , 

but he knows my mind." 

Substituting whale oil for petroleum, there is a 
suggestive anticipation of large transactions and a 
control of the market which took place a century 
and a quarter later ; and a reminder also that there 
was a kingly freedom in orthography in a day when 
every one did what was right and convenient 
in his own eyes in writing; also in the arbitrary 
use of capitals a hundred years before Thomas 
Carlyle. All this was permissible in a gentleman 
who was beginning to be called King Hancock, 
as his grandfather was called Bishop. Sometimes 
he falls into another royal habit of employing 
the plural We: ''We shall be glad You will be 
Explicit in Your opinion respecting Oyl & whether 
You would chuse a Concern in more than what will 
load the Ship and Brig." In the compHcated 
methods of exchange by way of London he did 



92 John Hancock 

an extensive banking business, drawing upon his 
agents in favor of names then and now prominent 
in Boston affairs, — Amory, Abbott, Ehot, Gray, 
Appleton, and others. 

He does not hesitate to call his agents to account 
when they neglect his interests, writing to Barnard 
and Harrison of Size Lane : — 

"I was greatly disappointed in not having all the things 
wrote for. I beg you would at all times be careful to send 
my Goods at the first opp'y, as it makes great odds in the 
sale, I am at a Loss to account why my Hemp & Beer & many 
other things should be omitted in my own ship & others 
have the preference, which is certainly now the case & I must 
insist upon it that in the future none of my goods be turned 
aside for any others. You may have reasons for this, but 
to me it appears pretty extraordinary." 

He is equally insistent with debtors at home, as in 
this advertisement : — 

" Store No, 4, at east end of Faneuil Hall Market, a general 
assortment of English and East India Goods, also choice 
Newcastle Coals, and Irish Butter, cheap for Cash. Said 
Hancock desires those persons who are still indebted to the 
estate of the late Thomas Hancock, Esq., deceased, to be 
speedy in paying their respective balances to prevent 
trouble." ^ 

When John Hancock reached home in 1761 he 
found that colonial sentiment had changed in 
his absence. The pohcy of the new king had been 

1 "On land reclaimed from the dock, and near the head of the 
present South Market Street, John Hancock kept store, and by 
advertisement called upon debtors to the estate of his late uncle, 
the Hon. Thomas Hancock, to make payment." — Justin Winsor's 
" Memorial History of Boston," Introduction to Vol. II, p. xx. 



Back to Boston 93 

closely watched, and it was beginning to show 
results among people who had been encouraged to 
think and act for themselves far more than native 
Englishmen. Dissenters and radicals had been 
driven and baited to these shores, or cast out like 
weeds only to take root in virgin soil. Great 
laxity was shown by the crown, and many privileges 
were granted to the Ishmaelites in the wilderness. 
When a time came to govern them and profit by 
them they displayed the unruly temper of children 
that have been allowed to run wild. The first 
show of restraint stirred a resentful spirit of inde- 
pendence. It had been the fortune of Hancock in 
London to observe the sudden and serious turning 
of attention by the British ministry to their pros- 
perous dependencies here when it was proposed 
to draw upon them for the expense of repulsing 
their French neighbors along the Canadian border. 
Upon the face of it taxing the provinces seemed 
nothing more than a fair demand for benefits 
secured at great cost. In England, and to some 
in America, refusal appeared like repudiation. 
But provincials had their head? upon the future 
rather than the past, and the colonies were already 
republics so far as proverbial ingratitude could 
make them, — at least this was sufficient to promise 
little toward reducing the national debt, a part of 
which had been incurred in the colonies' behalf. 
Moreover, just as the king was ready to empha- 
size their membership in the new empire they had 



94 John Hancock 

begun to think about the possibility of a separate 
nationahty of their own.^ It needed only an acid 
to precipitate what \^ held in unseen solution, 
and to make men speak out what was in their 
minds. 

This occurred when Parliament resolved upon 
imposing "certain stamp duties" in March, 1764. 
It was a year later when Grenville secured the 
passage of the act; but the storm of wrath that 
then burst had been gathering in twelve months of 
anticipation. It was not considered a tyrannical 
measure in England, any more than the receipt of a 
son's wages during his minority. But the carrying 
trade of Massachusetts in particular had been 
interfered with for years, incidentally making 
traders smugglers. The Stamp Act could not be 
so easily evaded as trade restrictions had been. 
Therefore the dispute was shifted to the claim 
that ParHament had no right to tax a people who 
were not represented in that legislative body by 
persons elected by the taxed. This was a new 
doctrine in a country where a county or a borough 
might be represented by a non-resident, appointed 
perhaps by a single land-owner. Another method 
had grown up here, where all freemen were repre- 

1 As early as 1643 the New England Confederation must have 
suggested to the colonists the possibility of a future union, a cen- 
tury and a quarter before it became a reality. Penn's scheme of a 
Biennial Congress followed in 1690, and Davenant's, Coxe's, and 
Franklin's proposals and plans were successive expressions of the 
same thought of association. 



Back to Boston 95 

sented in assembly by the choice of the majority, 
and they demanded that the traditions of the 
mother country be displaced by the new order, in 
their case at least. Furthermore they insisted 
that the Colonial Assembly, and not Parliament, 
should govern them. On these terms they were 
willing to preserve a federal union with Great 
Britain. Each party insisted on its view of these 
two questions, from the standpoint of different 
traditions, and with varying opinions as to how 
far the colonist was a British subject in every 
respect like the Englishman at home. 

Thus as early as 1763 provincials of advanced 
views began to entertain ambitious thoughts, and 
to struggle between loyalty to the crown and the 
desire for independence. If they had a wild 
dream of armed resistance to British demands so 
early, they became confident when they remembered 
what the regulars had taught them in the French 
and Indian war, with contemptuous airs of supe- 
riority, and that provincial troops did yeoman 
service then, even showing red-coats a trick or 
two, as at Braddock's defeat. With France 
no longer hanging Hke a menacing cloud upon the 
northwestern border, Americans could face about 
toward the sea if hostile ships should appear. It 
was well known that England had regarded the 
French in Canada as a restrictive power in keeping 
the expanding colonies from too rapid growth, 
and as a salutary check upon their ambitions. 



96 John Hancock 

With this barrier removed, apprehensions of 
colonial expansion were renewed in England. As 
far back as 1748 a trailer was told that the colo- 
nists had increased so much in numbers and riches 
that in thirty or forty years they would be able 
to form a state by themselves entirely independent 
of the mother country. 

The greatest obstacle to this, inspiring hope in 
the British Government and in loyal hearts here, 
was the antagonism between the twelve indepen- 
dencies along the coast. They were isolated from 
one another by distance, difficulty of communica- 
tion, differences in religion and poHtics, and by the 
prejudice and hatred which naturally followed. 
Even so near neighbors as Massachusetts and 
Rhode Island were as Philistia and Edom to each 
other. The general admission of estrangement, 
and spasmodic movements toward some sort of 
alhance, from the New England Confederation of 
1643 onward for a hundred years to the Albany 
Convention of 1754, had ended in nothing beyond 
a feeble groping toward crystallization, with no 
organic growth toward unity. Still, the desirability 
of federation was a growing thought in some minds. 
A pressure from outside was needed, stronger than 
internal jealousies, dissensions, and repugnancies, 
to weld the provinces into unity. When this came 
with the third George's coercive demand for tribute, 
the idea of drawing together for its refusal gained 
converts every day. 



Back to Boston 97 

These topics of union for independence Hancock 
had heard mentioned before he went to London, but 
only by such radicals as John Adams, the school 
teacher who had declared in 1755 that *'the only 
way to keep us from setting up for ourselves is to 
disunite us." French writers for thirty years had 
been predicting the loss to Britain of her colonies ; 
and some Americans were not unwilling to accept 
their prophecies and to note the signs that were to 
precede the event, particularly the conquest 
of Canada. But to speak openly of separation was, 
before 1760, like talking of secession before i860. 

As for English prophecy, Mr. Pratt, afterward 
Lord Camden, is reported to have said in conver- 
sation with Franklin in 1759: "For all that you 
Americans say of your loyalty, I know you will 
one day throw off your dependence upon this 
country, and, notwithstanding your boasted affec- 
tion for it, will set up for independence." George 
Chalmers, author of the "Political Annals of the 
United Colonies," intimated that there were 
"most satisfactory proofs, from 1688, of the settled 
purpose of the colonies to acquire independence." 
It might be answered that if such predictions were 
common in England, Americans would have been 
encouraged to entertain thoughts of separation 
earlier than they did to any extent. On the 
other hand, it is difficult to credit FrankHn's 
reply to Lord Chatham as late as August, 1774, 
that he "never had heard from any person, drunk 



/ 



98 John Hancock 

or sober, the least expression of a wish for a separa- 
tion or hint that it would be advantageous to 
America. '^ Perhaps hW long residence abroad 
did not permit him to hear mutterings along the 
coast from Maine to Georgia. Yet a similar 
dullness of hearing seems to have affected John 
Adams, Jay, Madison, Jefferson, and Washington, 
who all made similar avowals just before the war 
broke out. And Americans generally were care- 
ful to maintain that concessions from the crown 
were what was demanded and desired, not inde- 
pendence; which on this supposition was an in- 
direct sequence of the strife, not its purpose, as 
in the instance of slave emancipation ninety years 
later. 

The apparent inconsistency may be explained by 
the colonists' desire not to fail in every expression 
of loyalty, while acting with the independence in 
which they had been allowed to grow up. Ex- 
asperated by this discarding of authority, as in 
the matter of its trade laws, the mother country 
would be provoked to take the initiative by sending 
troops, and thus incur the blame of beginning the 
quarrel. It does not appear that the British 
government or people placed much value on pro- 
fessions of loyalty from the colonies ; and these in 
turn had no difficulty in interpreting replies that 
were sent back undisguised by any circumlocutions 
of diplomacy. 



CHAPTER VII 
GROWTH OF Hancock's patriotism 

For three years after his return from London 
Hancock appears to have been chiefly concerned 
with the commercial affairs of the firm. JHis 
uncle as the head of it naturally overshadowed 
him, and being a staunch loyalist would not en- 
courage radical sentiments in the junior partner.] 
When restraint was removed by death and the 
nephew was his own man, indications begin to 
appear of departure from the traditions of the family, 
which must have given uneasiness to the widow in 
her reminiscent life at the mansion. He had been 
conducting^' business alone for six months when, 
in the midst of correspondence with his London 
agents, he gave the first intimation of disquiet at 
the depression which followed the burdensome laws 
of trade : — 

"Times are very precarious here; you must make the 
most of your remittances as Money is Extremely Scarce 
& trade very dull. If we are not relieved at home [England] 
we must live upon our own produce and manufactures. We 
are terribly burthen'd, our Trade will decay, we are really 
worth a Saving." ^ 

^ For the entire letter of February 7, 1765, with facsimile of a 
part of it, and the following extracts in this chapter see "His Let- 
ter Book," pp. 63 £f. 



lOO John Hancock 

Three months later, March 22, 1765, the Stamp 
Act was passed, but the tidings had not reached 
Boston when he wrote Iprly in April : — 

"I hear the stamp act is like to take place, it is very 
cruel, we were before much burthened, we shall not be able 
much longer to support trade, and in the end Great Britain 
must feel the ill effects of it. I wonder the merchants & 
friends to America don't make some stir for us." 

He could not yet know that Barre and Conway 
enhvened a languid debate on March 22 by defend- 
ing the colonists' position and their right of petition. 
On May 13, after news of the passage of the 
Stamp Act had arrived, he wrote : — 

" I am heartily sorry for the great Burthen laid upon us, 
we are not able to bear all things, but must submit to higher 
powers, these taxes will greatly affect us, our Trade will be 
[ ruined, and as it is, it's very dull." 

A point to be noticed in this sentence is the 
apparent submission to "higher powers." Unless 
this sentiment was penned for effect upon London 
agents, Hancock had not become advanced in 
outspoken opposition to the government up to 
this time. Such antagonism was growing fast 
in the town and doubtless in his own mind ; but 
his affairs were not in a condition to warrant a break 
with English factors by expressing more than a 
mild regret at the course of events, accompanied 
by commendation for their choice of "Silk Cloths" 
for himself and an order for 

"two pipes of the very best Madeira for my own Table. 



Growth of Hancock's Patriotism loi 

I don't stand at any price, let it be good, I like a rich wine. 
You will use the same judgment in the choice of it as for 
my late uncle who had a high opinion of your FideUty." 

By the 2 2d of August he is aroused to a stronger 
protest which he sent by his new sloop "Liberty " on 
its first voyage. 

"I refer you to the Newspapers for an account of the 
proceedings here by which you* will see the General dissatis- 
faction here on account of the Stamp Act, which I pray may 
never be carried into Execution, it is a Cruel hardship upon 
us & unless we are Redressed we must be Ruined, our Stamp 
officer has resigned.^ I hope the same Spirit will prevail 
throughout the whole Continent, do Exert yourselves for 
us and promote our Interest with the Body of Merchants the 
fatal Effects of these Grievances you will feel very Sensibly; 
our Trade must decay & indeed already is very indifferent. 
I can't therefore but hope that we shall be considered, & 
that some will rise up to exert themselves for us we are 
worth saving but unless speedily relieved we shall be past 
remedy. Do think of us." 

When the stamps arrived, within a month after 
this letter, he wrote again in answer to one which 
had come over in the same ship with 

"the most disagreeable Commodity (say Stamps) that 
were ever imported into this Country, and what if carry'd 
into Execution will entirely Stagnate Trade here, for it is 
universally determined here never to submit to it, ... & 
nothing but the repeal of the act will righten, the Conse- 
quence of its taking place will be bad, & I believe I may say 
more fatal to you than to us. For God's sake use your In- 
terest to relieve us. I dread the Event." 

^ For the text of the Stamp Act see MacDonald's "Select 
Charters," p. 282. 



I02 Jc>hn Hancock 

Eighteen days before, he had attended a town- 
meeting in Faneuil Haff; and as a selectman had 
been appointed one of a committee to "instruct the 
town's representatives in General Assembly as to 
their Conduct at this very alarming Crisis." And 
a fortnight after, when a vacancy in the list 
of representatives was to be filled, he received 
several votes; but Sam Adams was elected. His 
turn came later. 

There had been riots in August with hanging 
and burning the stamp officer's effigy and attacking 
the acting governor's house ; but as a town Boston 
recorded its disapproval of such demonstrations. 
Hancock would go with the town as one of its 
officers; but in the quiet of his office he wrote 
on October 14 to the London house in a long letter 
words which indicate his growing patriotism : — 

" I now tell you, and you will find it come to pass, that 
the people of this Country will never Suffer themselves to 

be made slaves of by a Submission to that D d act. But 

I shall now open to you my own Determinations. ... a 
thousand Guineas would be no Temptation to me to be the 
first that should apply for a stamp. . . . Under this 
additional Burthen of the Stamp Act I cannot carry on 
business to any profit and we were before Cramp'd in our 
Trade & sufficiently Burthen' d, that any farther Taxes 
must Ruin us. . . . There is not cash enough here to sup- 
port it. . . . I have a right to the Libertys & Privileges 
of the English Constitution, & I as an Englishman will enjoy 
them. ..." 

In the transition from one nationality to an- 



Growth of Hancock's Patriotism 103 

other the home country, laws, and traditions were 
still uppermost in the upper-class American's 
mind ten years before the revolt, and for several 
years after, according to the progress independency 
was making in different minds. When, in October, 
1765, the deputies of nine colonies assembled in 
New York their appeal as Americans was to the 
natural rights of EngHshmen, ending in a declara- 
tion of those rights and a statement of grievances, 
chiefly the taxation of colonists who could not be 
represented in the House of Commons. A petition 
was sent asking that the tax laws be repealed, 
but with no mention of intended separation.^ 

It was the middle of January, 1766, before 
American affairs came up in Parliament. The 
king was surprised and grieved, provoked and 
himiiliated, he said, by colonial disaffection. He 
feared where it would end, and how it would be 
dealt with in Parliament. Parties differed there, 
and the nation was divided. Repeal of the Stamp 
Act was urged by Whigs. Tories opposed and the 
aristocracy of the country backed them, while 
the manufacturing and commercial towns saw 

* "The principle of no taxation without representation could 
not be maintained by any statesman not prepared for a radical 
reform of the British representative system." — "Cambridge 
Modern History," vi, 433. "The house [of Commons] is not the 
representative of the people of Great Britain, but of nominal 
boroughs, ruined towns, noble families, wealthy individuals, and 
foreign potentates." — William Pitt in "Life" by J. Holland Rose, 
I, 107, note. 



I04 Jc>hn Hancock 

repudiation and bankruptcy ahead. Pitt rested 
his plea for Americans on the different conditions 
of life in a new land; Mansfield cited British prec- 
edent to answer their demand for representation, 
eight millions of Englishmen out of nine having 
no votes for their representatives, and yet were 
taxed. So the debate went on between two 
parties there as here. Franklin's replies at his 
examination before the Commons' Committee 
on the 13 th of February helped to clear up mis- 
understanding of the American position, and a 
week later leave was given to bring in a bill for the 
Repeal of the Stamp Act. By March 17, it had 
passed both Houses, but with the fatal rider that 
the ''King and ParHament have power to make laws 
for the colonies and people of America, and that any 
proceedings denying such power are utterly null 
and void." ^ 

The provinces were so thankful for the repeal of 
the Stamp Act that they did not pay much atten- 
tion to the claim of authority to pass other acts. 
The lad who has escaped punishment does not 
stay to argue with his father about paternal rights, 
but hurries off about his enterprises. So did the 
people of Boston. They were wildly elated. 
Cannon boomed, flags were thrown to the breeze, 
music went up and down the streets. John Han- 
cock set out one of those two pipes of Madeira that 

1 John Hancock's brigantine "Harrison," Shuabel Coffin, 
master, brought the news of the repeal of the Stamp Act. 



Growth of Hancock's Patriotism 105 

he had ordered for his own use in front of his house 
for the cheering crowd, — who remembered him at 
the May election for representatives. Within the 
mansion the aristocrats of the town helped them- 
selves to Burgundy and other wines at his side- 
board and drank healths to a reforming Parliament. 
Even the royal governor, Sir Francis Bernard, 
joined in the general rejoicing which drowned party 
animosities for a day.^ 

In the succeeding months of gratulation and 
loyalty throughout the colonies threatening weather 
seemed to be clearing and might have passed 
away if the billeting of troops and demands for an 
unusual provision for them had not renewed the 
irritation; which soon brought out a refusal by 
the New York Assembly and its own suspension 
in consequence. Massachusetts also asked its 
governor why he had provided British soldiers at 
the Castle with fire and candles at the people's 
expense; and at first the Province objected to 
compensate for losses through mob violence in the 
Stamp Act riots, but did so later. Talk of separa- 
tion by extremists was less frequent and compara- 
tive content prevailed. 

Unfortunately England could not acquiesce in 
the general congratulation, nor give up hopes of 
revenue from the colonies. Townshend, chancellor 
of the exchequer, was confident that he could devise 

1 For what could be done in the line of pyrotechnic display in 
1766 see M. A. De Wolfe Howe's "Boston Common," p. 35. 



io6 John Hancock 

a method to secure contributions to the treasury, 
and on the strength o^his anticipation the land 
tax in England was reduced a shilling to the pound. 
To balance this a duty was laid on glass, red and 
white lead, paper, and tea imported by Ameri- 
cans ; the revenue to be used in giving the crown 
complete control of colonial governors and judges, 
by paying their salaries instead of letting them be 
amenable to the provinces and receiving their sala- 
ries from them. 

Discontent was rife once more. Joseph Hawley 
of Northampton, Massachusetts, took one step 
beyond everybody else when he declared, that 
Parliament had no right to legislate at all for the 
colonies without their chosen deputies as members 
of it.^ The whole country was stirred to protest 
again, but with a sobriety of speech that was more 
ominous than the former ebullition of riots. The 
Boston town-meeting renewed a non-importation 
agreement on October 28, 1767, and two months 
later sent a letter to the British ministry, and others 
to friendly statesmen, with a petition to the king. 
While their right hands handed over these loyal 
messages, their left hands passed out a circular 
letter to other colonial legislatures, urging union 
and harmony in view of what might be coming. 
Eight colonies responded, and Virginia issued a 

^ In Tudor 's "Life of Otis" some account is given of this re- 
served man who was a power behind noisier patriots. He refused 
to hold any office because the desire for it had been imputed as the 
reason of revolutionary acts. 



Growth of Hancock's Patriotism 107 

similar letter of its own. Officers of the crown here, 
unable to enforce revenue laws, declared that 
Americans were bent on independence despite their 
professions of loyalty. Lord Hillsborough, Sec- 
retary of State, sent a circular to other colomes 
urging them to treat the Massachusetts letter with 
contempt, and commanded the Massachusetts 
legislature to disapprove of its own action. To 
which James Otis repUed, "Let Britain rescind 
her own measures or the colonies are lost to her 
forever:" and other colonies endorsed Massa- 
chusetts. They were getting together for serious 
business. England also was getting ready. 

Meantime John Hancock's attention was diverted 
to the promise of his deceased uncle to give books 
to the value of five hundred pounds sterhng to 
Harvard College, to which he also added a large 
collection in his own name. Together they 
numbered 1,098 .volumes. His letter ordering 
the books is characteristic of a book-lover and 
shrewd buyer : — 

"It is some time since I heard from you with the Maga- 
zines &c. w'ch Beg in future you will please be Regular in 
sending. ... I now inclose you a large Inv^ of Books, 
which I desire you will please to send me, pack'd in the best 
manner and marked L H. I must Recommend to you to 
be very careful! in the collect of these Books, that they may 
be the best Editions & well Bound, & that you be particular 
in sending every Book mentioned, if to be had at any price, 
that each and every book be neatly Lettered & as there are 
several Pamphlets, that you wiU be Mindful to Bmd as 



io8 John Hancock 

many together as will make a neat volume & let them all be 
sent in that way. Letterin^on the Back, that they may 
be known. Upon the whole, I Recommend to you that the 
whole of these Books be very neat, well chosen, & Charged 
at the Lowest prices, as the whole of these Books are a 
present from me to our College Library in Cambridge." 

The rest of the letter relates to shipment and 
terms of payment. It is to be presumed that as he 
was fulfilling a request of his uncle, which he might 
have failed to do without prosecution, and also added 
to the gift himself, he did not think it necessary to 
specify to the London bookseller that one half of 
the donation was Thomas Hancock's. He need not, 
however, have been particular to say, ''the whole 
of these Books are a present from me." They 
understood at Harvard the share due to each donor, 
and acknowledged the same on Commencement 
Day, July 15, 1767. Moreover, something ought 
to be forgiven to the nephew who supplemented 
his uncle's endowment of a Hebrew professorship, 
and a gift of theological books, with Spenser, 
Chaucer, Pope, Dryden, and Gay, although Voltaire 
and Rabelais must have been regarded with sus- 
picion by the faculty. Hollis's donation of Milton, 
Shakespeare, La Fontaine, and Boccaccio was 
similarly a departure from what had been regarded as 
appropriate reading for students in the Puritan age.^ 

1 The inventory of the books shipped by Thos. Longman on the 
"Boston Packet" from London March 21, 1766, "to the account 
and Risque of John Hancock, Esqr. Merchant in Boston," con- 
tains about five hundred titles, at a co3t of £516. 16. 13J." 
"Chamberlain Mss." Boston Public Library. 



Growth of Hancock's Patriotism 109 

It may not be amiss to enumerate the list of books 
in Hancock's own library as finally inventoried, 
and copied in the ''Historical Magazine" for May, 
i860. It is a fair collection of volumes for the 
time and fuller than most hbraries of the day, 
about one hundred and fifty numbers in all. 

Postlethwaite's Dictionary of Trade and Commerce; 2 
vols., folio. Dart's History and Antiquities of the Abbey 
Church of St. Peter's; 2 vols., folio. Chamber's Dictionary: 2 
vols., folio. Willard's Divinity; folio. Flavel's Works; folio. 
Bacon's Philosophy. Hollis's Memoirs; quarto. Prussian 
Evolutions. Carter's Epictetus. Newton's Milton; 3 vols. 
Role's Conduct. Universal History; 51 vols. Memoirs of 
Marlborough. Magdalen Charities. Hanway's Reflections 
on Life and Religion. Varro's Husbandry. Locke on the 
Understanding. Beccaria on Crimes. Annals of the Nether- 
lands. Constitution of the United States. Zimmerman 
on Pride. Dickinson's PoHtical Essays. Cato's Letters; 
4 vols. Field's Engineer. Adams's Defence of the Constitu- 
tion; 3 vols. Ramsay's History of the United States. 
Belknap's New Hampshire. Erkhard's Gazetteer, or the 
Newsman's interpreter. Nature Displayed, or Spectacle 
de la Nature; 7 vols. Salmon's Short View. Clarendon's 
Rebellion. British Registers. Whitelock's Historical 
Memoirs. Age of Louis XIV. British Customs. Eng- 
land's Reformation. Horneck's Great Law of Considera- 
tion. Hervey's Meditations. Chauncy's Thoughts on 
Religion. Virgil. Horace and Tully. Estimate of Man- 
ners. Greek Homer. Caesar and Juvenal. Tattler and 
Guardian. Shakespeare and Spectator. Female Spectator. 
Pamela. Mahew's Sermons. Sir Charles Grandison. 
Faith and Practice; 2 vols. Collin's Rambler. Gay. Tom 
Jones. Pope. Dryden. Glover's Leonidas. Robertson's 
Scotland. Mihtary Instructor. Essay on Slavery. Jour- 



iio John Hancock 

nal of Congress. Emily Montague. Bibles in various 
languages. Whole Duty c^Man. Archbishop Sharpens 
Sermons and Discourses; 7 vols. Watts's Works. Massa- 
chusetts Constitution. Adam's Defence, in Dutch. Ladies 
Library; 3 vols. Irwin's Tracts. Boyer's French Dic- 
tionary. Sim's MiHtary Guide. Historical Dictionary. 
Hewett's Fables. Memoirs of the Plague in London. 
Mathematical works in French, Latin, Greek, and Dutch. 

If Hancock's radical sentiments had been of 
slower growth than Sam Adams's, they were to have 
a stimulus wliich would be Kkely to ripen them 
speedily. On June 10, 1768, one of his vessels, a 
new sloop with the ominous name of ''Liberty," 
arrived in the harbor with wines from Madeira. 
Custom house ofhcials happened to be displaying 
one of the intermittent attacks of zeal to which 
they are subject in all times and places. This 
particular collector, Thomas Kirk, was so officious 
about the casks of Madeira that the crew locked 
him below while the wet goods were swung to the 
dock and a false entry made, according to an evasive 
habit which importers had fallen into after the 
ancient Act of Navigation had become offensive in 
its recent enforcement. How far the owner of the 
sloop was responsible for the lawlessness of the 
crew is a question that could have been answered 
easier at the time than now. His friend. Captain 
James Marshall, was not far away, and the office 
and warehouse certainly were not, and doubtless 
the owner was not. But the master of a British 
frigate was impressing American sailors into his 



Growth of Hancock's Patriotism 1 1 1 

service; one of them had been rescued that very 
day. It was not a time to observe the revenue laws 
of Engand more strictly than they had been 
heeded for many years all along the coast.^ 

When the customs collector was released from the 
hold he reported the outrage to the commander 
of the *'Romney," a fifty-gun ship that had brought 
troops to Boston. Hancock's sloop was soon seized 
for fraudulent entry and moved under the frigate's 
guns to prevent recapture by amphibious Bos- 
tonians. Landsmen joined in a consequent riot 
to the damage of revenue officers' houses, and the 
collector's boat, which had figured in the affair 
of the ^'Liberty," was taken to the Common and 
burned, while its owner fled to the ^'Romney" 
for protection and thence to Castle WiUiam. 
A town meeting had always been the safety valve 
of the upper classes when the lower ran riot. 
One was immediately called, which sent an address 
to Governor Bernard, its sentiments balancing 
between professions of loyalty and the spirit of 
liberty, accompanied by a request to have the frig- 
ate removed from the harbor. Bernard replied 
that it was beyond his authority to order the 
removal. Hancock was one of a committee which 
went to see when the governor would receive them, 

^ "The first act of violence was the seizure of John Hancock's 
sloop Liberty, which was freighted with a cargo of Madeira wine, 
June lo, 1768." — Gu}'- Carleton Lee's "History of North Amer- 
ica," VI, 119. The duty on Madeira was much higher accord- 
ing to its value than on other wines. 



112 John Hancock 

but he was at his house in Jamaica Plain, whither 
a larger delegation prod^ded in an imposing line 
of eleven chaises, to be politely received and get 
the above unsatisfactory answer from the governor. 

As for the case of Hancock and his sloop "Lib- 
erty," it was brought into the courts and prose- 
cuted under libels to the amount of loo.ooo pounds 
sterling. John Adams was counsel for the de- 
fendant, his main defense being that a law had 
been broken which Americans had no share in 
making. The case gave him no end of trouble, 
and was finally settled by the battle of Lexington, 
with many other old scores. 

Various incidents have been interpreted as 
marking the initial break of colonists with the 
authority of the crown, but none are so notable as 
the restraint of the inspector and the retaliatory 
taking into custody of Hancock's sloop. Wine had 
been escorted by a gang of roughs through the 
town three months before, an occurrence which 
the revenue officers deemed it prudent not to 
notice lest the tar-and-feather fate of a Providence 
collector should befall them. But now the gage had 
been thrown down in sight of a royal frigate by a 
Boston merchant, and it had been picked up by the 
commander. It was not necessary to fire a broad- 
side to announce that a conflict had begun. It 
must be admitted that John Hancock began it. 
For good or evil he had that distinction. Sam 
Adams had plotted and talked and written. James 



Growth of Hancock's Patriotism 1 1 3 

Otis had waxed eloquent; Joseph Hawley had 
gone a step further in radical utterances, and 
Joseph Warren had been a leader in club meetings 
of patriots ; but it fell to John Hancock to commit 
the overt and conspicuous act which brought 
about the first clash with the British government 
that was important enough to deserve the name. 
In itself the deed was not a noble one, unless as 
a protest against an unpopular or unjust law which 
had been often violated, so frequently and boldly 
that the government was open to the ridicule 
of the world. It was obliged to maintain its rev- 
enue acts or rescind them. Protests against them 
had availed nothing; accordingly defiance was 
tried. It was the same course that was pursued 
in one instance after another until independence 
was secured; but Hancock, with his customary 
fortune, headed the Hst and led the procession. 
He was not exactly a drum-major, tossing a gilded 
pikestaff in advance of band and regiment, officers 
and troops, but he lacked nothing of the foremost 
place and splendor of the radiant leader who gives 
the time to a marching host. It will be observed as 
his story proceeds that he was in the forefront of 
many movements and at the turning-point in 
several critical junctures. He was not so often the 
cause of occurrences as the apparent occasion; 
which is the most evident token to the multitude 
of intimate connection with events. In this 
instance he was not the man to regret that his 



114 John Hancock 

ship had been caught between an American dock 
and a British man-of-"#lr, nor that he had per- 
sisted in violating laws which were deemed un- 
just and were broken in every port. His impor- 
tance would not be diminished by the confiscation 
of his sloop — the wines were safe — and he 
himself was immediately the most conspicuous 
patriot in the town. 

He was also a cloud in the west to the ministry 
in London when they heard what had happened. 
They declared once more that '' there had been a 
long-concerted plan to resist the authority of 
Great Britain/ and that the people of Boston had 
hastened to acts of violence sooner than was in- 
tended, and that nothing but immediate exertion 
of mihtary power could prevent an open revolt 
of the town." So they ordered two additional 
regiments to Boston. It certainly looked as if 
Hancock was to have the honor of precipitating 
hostilities when in town-meeting James Otis 
said, pointing to four hundred muskets belonging 
to the town, *' There are your arms; when an 
attempt is made against your Kberties they will be 
delivered to you:" and the inhabitants then voted 
to provide themselves further with arms, alleging 
that ''there is an apprehension in the minds of 

1 Later it was openly announced that Hancock and Washington 
were privy to a conspiracy for burning down London, and that 
Hancock in a letter written in cipher had prophesied the blowing 
up of the city. — Trevelyan's "George IH.and Charles Fox," 
I, 253- 



Growth of Hancock's Patriotism 1 1 5 

many of an approaching war with France" 1 so 
shrewdly careful were they to avoid all outward 
suggestion of disloyalty. 

In due season two regiments with artillery 
arrived from Halifax, and were landed under 
the protection of eight men-of-war. When they 
marched to the Common with sixteen rounds of 
cartridges in their boxes and camped there — also 
in Faneuil Hall, and the Town House — some 
Tories would say, catching Dundas' phrase, See 
what John Hancock and his crew have brought here 
by running that cargo of wines past the custom 
house with only partial entry -''five pipes for 
himself, two for the Treasurer of the Province, and 
six of good saleable Madeira for our market" — so 
ran the order to Hill, Lamar, & Bissett. But with 
the Whigs he was already in greater favor than 
Sam Adams even, since at the election of 1767 he 
was reelected representative to the General Court 
by a vote of six hundred and eighteen, which was 
forty-four more than Adams received, and forty- 
three more than Otis, and sixty-one more than 
Cushing If, as his enemies said, he was fond 
of popularity and courted it, he was eminently 
successful ; and if there was a leader of the populace 
in the direction they were headed it was the aris- 
tocratic Hancock. When the natural antipathy of 
the class that composed the rank and file of radicals, 
at this preliminary stage of the Revolution, to the 
conservative element to which Hancock belonged 



1 1 6 John Hancock 

is remembered, something more than an over- 
weening thirst for geneil^ applause must be taken 
into account. A hard-headed people saw values 
beyond the wealth and display which most often 
antagonize them ; nor were their suffrages won by 
civiHties that are apt to be interpreted as patronage. 
Therefore it will be difficult to attribute Hancock's 
headship at this period to any causes which do not 
include a genuine devotion to Hberty for the colonies, 
manifested by personal sacrifices which he was 
ready to make and did make, as will be seen. For 
every reason he was a man of the people at a time 
when they needed a man of position commercially, 
politically, and socially; but if he had not also 
had a genuine and devoted patriotism his other 
accessories would not have satisfied them.^ 

His increasing patriotism and consequent popu- 
larity meant a corresponding disfavor with the Brit- 
ish government. He loomed large before the minis- 
try when they heard of the "Liberty" affair, and the 
king was so incensed that he never forgave him. It 
was suggested in Parliament that the names of the 
chief agitators be sent to one of the Secretaries 
of State, and that a statute, long obsolete, be 
enforced to bring to England subjects accused 
of treason outside the kingdom. There were 
Tories in Boston who could furnish rebel lists of 

* "Our forefathers, at the beginning of the struggle, were glad 
if they and their cause could even be counted respectable." — 
Perkins's "France in the American Revolution," p. 64. 



Growth of Hancock's Patriotism 1 1 7 

varying length, but John Hancock would just then 
head every one of them, although Sam Adams had 
the priority when affidavits were sent over to prove 
him fit to be transported. Possibly Hancock 
was too important socially and commercially in 
loyalist circles to be attacked; and moreover he 
was not so noisy in town-meeting as Adams. But 
George the Third did not make much distinction 
between them when he excepted both from a 
general amnesty .^ Still, both of them were more 
reserved than Otis or Hawley in provoking the 
government by radical speech. With other wise 
men it was their pohcy to let Britain become the 
first offender and to place themselves on the defen- 
sive merely. Accordingly they waited a year and a 
half, while troops idled in the town and the armed 
fleet swung at anchor in the harbor. Soldiers 
and sailors, hable to insult and abuse, behaved as 
well as could be expected, restrained by officers 
who had their loyalist sympathizers and enter- 
tainers in the town in greater numbers than is 
supposed by those who imagine the struggle to 
have been between a united America and a soHd 

1 Force, " American Archives," Fourth Series, ii, 968. The worst 
that the malignant Tory, "Z. Z." could say of him was that "Sara 
Adams with his oily tongue had duped a man whose brains were 
shallow and his pockets deep, and ushered him to the public as a 
patriot too. He filled his head with importance and emptied his 
pockets, and as a reward kicked him up the ladder where he now 
presides over the Twelve United Provinces." — Quoted by Wells, 
"Life of Samuel Adams," p. 43^- 



ii8 John Hancock 

England ; whereas there was a division of sentiment 
in each country. Bu^ between the common 
troops and laborers on the docks, in shipyards, 
and ropewalks there was always friction, which 
like flint with steel was likely to strike fire some 
day. 

This happened on the 2d of March, 1770, when 
the rope-spinners of the North End put up a street 
fight with the soldiers of the 29th regiment, of 
which the commander complained to Hutchinson 
as acting governor. Three days later a crowd 
which had been called together by a false alarm 
of fire began pelting a sentinel in front of the 
Custom House. Calling for help. Captain Preston 
and a squad of half a dozen soldiers came to his 
defence. The mob surrounded them flourishing 
clubs, calling names, and daring the troops to 
shoot. A soldier, hit with a bludgeon, fired and 
killed a ringleader, Crispus At tucks, a mulatto. 
Other soldiers fired, killing three, mortally wounding 
two, and injuring six. The soldiers were arrested, 
imprisoned, and acquitted seven months afterward 
by a Boston jury. But the icy snowballs of a 
March evening, returned by bullets, opened a 
series of battles, the next of which was to be five 
years later. 



CHAPTER VIII 

ENTRANCE UPON PUBLIC LIFE 

The seizure of his sloop had made an apology, 
if he needed one, for John Hancock to become active 
in the liberty party. Even his loyalist neighbors 
would excuse his attitude. In their hearts they 
would have held him to be a mean-spirited coward 
if he had not resented the act, although some would 
say that the commander of the ^'Romney" was 
obliged to maintain the laws ; but such defenders 
did not belong to the princely smugglers down by 
the wharves. These apologizers more Hkely were 
inn-holders who kept taverns frequented by army 
and navy officers, or lawyers who held briefs for 
customs officials, or ministers who preached to 
congregations supposed to be generally loyal, 
like Church of England people who gave patriots 
so much trouble, and suffered more as the struggle 
proceeded and when it ended. However the affair 
of the wine-laden ship was regarded, with the 
subsequent action against its owner, he was brought 
prominently into the controversy that was brewing, 
and gave advanced leaders a powerful leverage to 
lift him into preeminence.^ Two years before 

1 Stark, with Loyalist sympathies, says that the breaking out of 
the Revolution saved Hancock from financial ruin, his case being 



I20 John Hancock 

this he had celebrated the repeal of the Stamp 
Act with hospitable cheer, and voters did not 
forget it when they cho^him one of a committee 
to thank John Dickinson of Pennsylvania for his 
^* Farmer's Letters," now circulating throughout 
the colonies. Hancock was in good patriot 
company, between Samuel Adams and Joseph 
Warren, the two other members of the committee. 
Two months afterward came the capture of the 
*' Liberty," which naturally confirmed and strength- 
ened his choice of party and helped his promotion 
in its ranks. And when in May, 1769, Governor 
Bernard summoned the Legislature, which had not 
met for a year, Boston placed Hancock on the list of 
representatives.^ The first action of this assembly 
was to demand the removal of troops from the town. 
Refusing to do business until this was done, the 
representatives were sent out to Cambridge, 
on the pretext that they would there be out of 
mihtary reach. Soon after, the governor was 
removed from the trouble he was making, being 
recalled to court and made Baronet of Nettleham 
for his consolation. 

in the Admiralty Court at the time for damages laid for more than 
the value of his property. — "Loyalists of Massachusetts," p. 50. 
1 " John Adams, walking with Sam Adams on the Common, 
looking towards Hancock's house said, 'This town has done a wise 
thing to-day. They have made that young man's fortune their 
own.' His prophecy was literally fulfilled, for no man's property 
was ever more entirely devoted to the public. And his private 
affairs were left to subalterns to the end of his Ufe."»— Tudor's 
"Life of James Otis," p. 262, note. 



Entrance Upon Public Life 121 
Then came the scrimmage by the custom house, 
an appropriate place, since import and export duties 
were the chief cause of contention; and the town 
called the killing of six and the injury of half-a- 
dozen more a Massacre, commemorating it on 
every anniversary for thirteen years. Blood was 
up and the struggle had begun. Another town- 
meeting was in order, with the consequent commit- 
tee of seven of the principal citizens, on which 
John Hancock was placed first and Samuel Adams 
second. They were to visit the governor and 
demand that the troops be removed from town 
both regiments, only six hundred men m all. A 
biographer of Adams remarks that "Probably 
the rich, luxurious chairman [Hancock] did not 
forget, even on an occasion Uke this, to set off his 
fine figure with gay velvet and lace, and a gold 
headed cane." Even so he was first inside the 
council chamber at the head of a company which 
included Henshaw, Phillips, Molineux, Pemberton 
and Warren. Of course it^was Adams who did 
the talking, as usual ; but Hancock had the honor 
and the satisfaction of personally conducting 
the embassy which compelled the governor to 
send the two obnoxious regiments out to Castle 
WilUam. He had also the gratification of reporting 
success to the meeting, which had waited till dark 
to hear from the committee, and to learn that the 
inhabitants expressed their high satisfaction it 
afforded them," as the record runs. The victory 



122 John Hancock 

which the patriot party won had been for the peace 
of the whole town, and J^y the effort of the most 
prominent men in it, peers of Hancock in eminence. 
Others who had not endorsed their action were 
profited by it. The tide was turning to the flood. 
John Hancock had no reason to doubt which 
was the people's party; that he was in general 
favor and on the road to honor and usefulness he 
had abundant evidence. To be a selectman was 
then a great distinction ; to be a representative 
in the Legislature was a high honor. Frequent 
choice as presiding officer was another token of 
popular estimation ; and to be chairman of commit- 
tees, and a leader of deputations was still further 
proof of public regard. He generally knew what 
he could do well and what he could not, with 
one exception which will appear later ; but accord- 
ing to his ability he was willing to serve, and what 
he furnished was no small part of the requisites 
to success.^ The Whig party had not enough of 
such material to outdo the Tories in a direction 
which is much to some and something to every- 
body, namely wealth and social standing. 

It is rarely, however, that any man's road to pros- 

1 "As a presiding officer he was not surpassed by any person of 
his time. His voice was powerful, his acquaintance with parHa- 
mentary forms accurate ; apprehension quick, attentive, impartial, 
dignified, and he inspired respect and confidence wherever he 
presided. In private life he commanded the esteem of political 
opponents, and his beneficence never failed." — Tudor's "Life of 
James Otis," p. 268. 



Entrance Upon Public Life 123 

perity has no turnings, and Hancock's course was 
not always in the straight line which Sam Adams 
chose. When the controversy was renewed about 
convening the General Court at Cambridge in 
obedience to royal instructions, Adams held that 
these were a violation of the chartered rights of 
the Province. Hancock took the side of Hutchin- 
son and the king. Aside from the inconvenience 
of getting to the academic town and staying there, 
no greater harm would follow than that of crowding 
instructors and students out of the "Philosophy 
Room" which the Legislature honored by its 
sessions. It was the king's ''instructions" that 
Adams objected to, with Hawley and Bowdoin on 
his side ; while Hancock, Otis, and others of the 
majority took the view that if the crown wished 
to adjourn the assembly to the wilds of " Housa- 
tonic in the extreme west of the Province" it 
could do so. It was a bitter pill to Adams that 
they put him on the committee which took this 
humble acquiescence to the governor ; but he had 
an opportunity to see how badly matters were 
going. The removal to Cambridge could not 
be raised to the dignity of a calamity when there 
were other differences lying like a cloud-bank on 
the eastern horizon. 

Hancock had been hearing of late considerable 
talk about being a tool of Adams's. It was a 
convenient time to show that he had a mind of his 
own, especially when Otis and the majority were with 



124 John Hancock 

him. Hutchinson ungenerously construed his atti- 
tude as a defection from the Kberty party, in 
which the governor w^ followed by later critics;^ 
but Adams and Hawley were not the entire band 
of patriots, — only pioneers blazing the path. 
When something of more consequence came up 
Hancock was with them once more. Stephen 
Higginson, writing for the ''Massachusetts Cen- 
tinel" in the heat of a gubernatorial campaign 
twenty years after this episode, asserted that 
radicals had no confidence in his [Hancock's] 
attachment to the cause, and but for their vigilance 
Hutchinson would have gained him to the royalist 
party; and that it was often with great pains 
that they prevented him from going over to the 
other side. It was a serious charge for even a politi- 
cal opponent to make in a day when vilification 
was as common and as bitter as it has ever been. 
But the assertion, whatever ground it may have 
had, did not gain sufficient credence with the 
people of Massachusetts to prevent the election 
of Hancock to their chief magistracy.^ 

^ "In 1 77 1 Hancock gave such signs of disgust at his former 
(Whig) associates and opinions that Hutchinson had strong hopes 
of bringing him over to the Tory side. ... But his recreancy was 
short." — Hosmer, "Life of Hutchinson," p. 210. 

2 The question of Hancock and Adams being offered peerages 
as bribes to ensure their loyalty is one of the impressions which lack 
sufTicient foundation. If they had been approached on the 
subject, as sundry persons were at a later day with more sub- 
stantial ofifers, it would have been noised abroad. But Hancock 
and Adams were too early and firm in their attitude toward the 



Entrance Upon Public Life 125 

This wavering of the left wing was one of the 
incidents belonging to a time of discouragement 
when in 1771 Admiral Montague brought twelve 
ships to anchor in Boston harbor. Sedition could 
not spread or greatly flourish under their guns, 
and might have died out if the efforts of Adams 
and Hawley had not been ceaseless. In the pro- 
posed surrender of the Castle to an ofhcer of the 
king, and in the payment of royal officers' salaries 
by the crown they saw signs of ' ' despotic administra- 
tion." This indignity brought Adams to develop 
an idea which had occurred to him ninfe years 
before, which may be regarded as the latest germ 
of all the association, confederation, and union 
that followed. 

In the "Boston Gazette" of October 2, 1772, 
he closed an appeal with these words:— "Let 
every Town assemble. Let Associations and 
Combinations be everywhere set up to consult 
and recover our just Rights." Out of this sugges- 
tion came the Committees of Correspondence, 
which eventually united towns and colonies in a 
single purpose and in a common cause. The 
scheme did not at first commend itself to all the 
patriot party. Hancock, with Phillips, Cushing, 
and the selectmen of influence were opposed to it ; 
and when Adams by a flank movement in town- 
meeting obtained a vote for a Committee of Corre- 

royal policy to encourage royal advances. Instead they had 
threats from the throne. 



126 John Hancock 

spondence to consist of twenty-one persons, prom- 
inent men would not serve on it, Hancock among 
others. As finally constituted, Otis was chair- 
man; Adams, Warren, and Church taking the 
responsibility of preparing a document setting 
forth the rights of colonists, how they had been 
violated, and the sense of the town of Boston re- 
specting the situation. Contrary to the general 
expectation this statement, sent broadcast, pro- 
duced a marvellous effect, causing similar com- 
mittees to be formed in other towns and colonies. 
It also raised a long controversy with Governor 
Hutchinson, in which he announced the king's 
disapproval of such committees and their extra- 
legislative and irresponsible doings. 

Hancock was not long out of sympathy with 
Adams nor beyond his influence. Their friend- 
ship had been so strong that in 1772 the merchant 
had employed Copley to paint both their portraits 
to be hung together in his drawing-room, where 
they remained for fifty years, afterward adorning 
Faneuil Hall, and now to be seen in the Art Museum. 
Such companions were not likely to become per- 
manently estranged over an untried proposition. 
In its great success Adams could afford to forgive 
Hancock and the rest of the doubters; and the 
gentleman was ready to accord the politician the 
praise he merited. Moreover, Adams had uses 
for his wealthy, popular, and aristocratic friend; 
who in turn was willing to be employed in a move- 



Entrance Upon Public Life 127 

ment which was growing in popularity in his own 
circle. 

In the summer of 1773 Hancock had an oppor- 
tunity to be a party in an affair which marvellously 
excited the town and country. It was not a strictly 
creditable performance to obtain the letters of 
Governor Hutchinson, Lieutenant-governor Oliver, 
the customs-officer Paxton, and of other loyalists 
written to Enghsh friends, and to send them back 
to Boston, to be used for what they were worth 
and much more by the revolutionary party, on 
the plea that the end justifies the means. The 
sagacious Franklin, hitherto held in as high esteem 
in Europe as in America, had some exercise in 
casuistry for the share he had in obtaining the 
letters and for the advice he gave with regard to 
making the most of them here; for which he was 
soundly rated by the solicitor-general before the 
Privy Council. He could reply that tampering 
with the mails was a part of the postal service of 
Great Britain and a diversion of the king himself ; 
that these very letters had been shown to Enghsh 
statesmen ; and that the writers of them had taken 
the same liberty with the correspondence of others. 
It was a practice which accorded with a blunt 
sense of honor, shown in more serious ways in that 
loose age. Franklin, charged with thievery, was 
dismissed from his deputy postmaster general's 
office, and in consequence resigned the agency for 
Massachusetts and came home to stay until he 



128 John Hancock 

returned in 1775 as the representative of a new 
nation.^ 

Political capital was^ade of the letters in Bos- 
ton. John Hancock, always fond of a dramatic 
situation, was the first to give them pubHcity by 
announcing to the Assembly that within eight and 
forty hours a discovery would be made which 
would have great results ! For two days he en- 
joyed the wondering of the town and the respect 
of the multitude as the possessor of a mysterious 
state secret of vast importance. Its proportions 
grew as the report of it spread throughout the 
Province. Samuel Adams added to the wonder 
by having the galleries cleared when the Assembly 
met, as he had matters of profound consequence 
to place before it, and spoke darkly of a rumor that 
letters had been sent to England prejudicial to 
the Province by men within it. Hancock con- 
tributed to the total effect by saying that copies 
had been put into his hands on the street, and they 
were no longer private. It looked as if their 
publicity was through him. It has been asserted 
that they were obtained at first with the under- 
standing that they were to be kept secret. Adams 
read them to the Assembly. A committee ap- 
pointed to consider them reported that they were 
*' designed to overthrow the government and to 

1 Interesting comment on this affair, which has had many ex- 
planations, can be found in C. A. W. Pownall's "Life of Governor 
Thomas Pownall," p. 250. * 



Entrance Upon Public Life 129 

introduce arbitrary power into the Province." 
Outside curiosity was immense, and was fostered by 
mysterious exclamations over a secret which could 
not be told; but resolves about the letters were 
published, tending to exaggerate the harm and 
prepare the people for the worst interpretation 
that could be put upon them when they should be 
printed. Then it was seen that after all the worst 
thing that Hutchinson had written was, in effect, 
that in his opinion there must be an abridgment 
of English liberties in a colony three thousand miles 
from the parent state — liberties which they might 
enjoy in England where every one is represented 
in Parhament — a sentiment he had often uttered 
in public. Letters of Oliver and Paxton were 
stronger in their expressions, but the writers were 
of less consequence. The proposal of one to deal 
with ''incendiaries," and of the other to have two 
or three regiments sent, added inflammatory 
material to the general indignation. Importance 
was gained by Adams and Hancock; but the whole 
affair, as a recent reviewer of it has remarked, 
was an instance of a great cry and little wool. 
At this distance it seems as if the principals knew 
that the doubtful ethics in making pubHc use of 
private correspondence must be covered by an 
extraordinary exploiting of a necessity in order 
to the common weal, when it could not have been 
much affected if the letters had remained with 
theif recipients, as they would if Franklin had 



130 John Hancock 

not obtained them and transmitted them, and if 
Sam Adams had not imgmfied their importance. 
As Franklin suggested to him, the patriot leader 
raised a mist around them — which naturally 
made them gigantic spectres. Incidentally, and 
in the lapse of years, the occurrence showed how 
trickery detracts from honor in a good cause, 
dimming the final glory. If the impatient pro- 
moters of righteous discontent had waited a Httle 
they would have learned that ship-loads of prov- 
ocation were on the Atlantic headed for Boston. 

Meanwhile Hancock's business affairs, great and 
small, were not wholly neglected. Trade was 
dull, importations were discouraged, and his ships 
returning with ballast only, "coals, hemp, duck, 
and grindstones." Goods were returned to Lon- 
don with the message : — 

"We can't always submit. It is a true saying 'Oppres- 
sion will make a wise man mad. '" . . . 

And two sentences after. 

"I have to express my grateful acknowledgements to 
your Mr. John Harrison for his very genteel present of the 
table cloth & napkins. They are excessive genteel and by 
far the best in the Country. My Aunt joins me in her Com- 
pliments to you & connection Particularly to the Lady of 
Mr. G. H. with every wish in her favor." ^ 

1 As early as 1767 Hancock broke with his London agents, 
Barnard and Harrison. His letters to them show that he had too 
good an opinion of his standing and credit to be slighted by them 
or to be prevented from protest against oppressive measures. For 
these extracts see A. B. Brown's "His (Letter) Book," pp. 149, ff. 



Entrance Upon Public Life 131 

In the winter of 1770 he ships ''Oyl, Pottashes 
& whalebone" to London and calls for salt from 
Lisbon, sells his ship ''John" and has a new one 
built for the spring trade. But in April he has 
an attack of ''indisposition," probably the gout, 
but after six months he writes: "with the Leave 
of an Indulgent Providence I am not without a 
prospect of seeing you & my friends in London by 
the middle of June next." 

When that month came he wrote : — 

"I have been for some time past and still am so engaged 
in our General Assembly that I cannot now particularly 
Reply to your last fav'r. ... I have delivered to Capt. 
Hall the Size of Glass with directions for a New Meeting 
house Building in this town " — 

Brattle Street Church, the Hancocks' place of 
worship, whose corner-stone bore the name of 
Hon. John Hancock in recognition of his gift of 
$1,000, with mahogany pulpit, furniture, and 
deacons' seat, besides free seats for poor widows 
and others. He also gave a Bible to a Church 
in Lunenburg, a bell to another in Jamaica 
Plain, a fire engine to the town of Boston and 
a bell to the Brattle Street Church when it was 
completed. He had some time before ordered 
from London 

"as neat a Mahogany Cabinet as can be made, suitable 
for a Lady's chamber, rather convenient than Remarkable 
for any outward Decorations. I would have it very neat 
& respectable as it is for my Aunt, widow of my late Uncle, 



132 John Hancock 



with whom I now Reside, & a Lady for whom I have the 
highest affection & Esteem." 

Three weeks later he orders 
"100 squares of best London glass 18 by 11^ for the use 
of my own House wch, I pray may be the very best." 

An honor which was gratifying to Hancock's 
military ambitions was his appointment ''to be 
Captain of the Company of Cadets with the rank 
of Colonel." This company was known as the 
Governor's Guard; and this advertisement straight- 
way appeared : — 

"Wanted. Immediately — For His Excellency's Company 
of Cadets. 
Two Fifers that understand Playing. Those that are 
masters of musick and are incUned to engage with the Com- 
pany, are desired to apply to Col. John Hancock." 



CHAPTER IX 



TAXED TEA 



The very day of the Boston Massacre, so called, 
Lord North, prime minister and leader of the 
"king's friends," or Tory party, moved a repeal 
of all the Townshend Act except the tax upon tea. 
This was to be retained in order to maintain the 
right of ParKament to tax the colonies, and to 
show the king's determination to have his way.^ 
Removal of taxes upon other articles, and the 
government's assurance that it "had never in- 
tended to lay further taxes upon America for the 
purpose of raising a revenue" quieted merchants, 
who kept their peace for a while, and trade with 
England ^ almost quadrupled within the next two 
years, despite the king's meddling in the province's 
affairs by removing the Assembly to Cambridge, 

* " At no time during the Revolutionary struggle was it proposed 
that the colonists should be taxed for the support of the home gov- 
ernment, or even for the full support of the armies in America." — 
Van Tyne, " Prehminaries of the Revolution," p. 104. Lord North 
said that Americans had no objection to submit to the authority 
of the Crown. It was to the claims of ParUament that they were 
adverse, objecting to being subjects of other subjects. — Marks' 
"England and America," 11, 1057. 

2 Amounting to £2,000,000 in 1770. 



134 John Hancock 

interfering with its prerogatives, dismissing judges, 
as in South CaroHna, forbidding hindrance of the 
slave trade when Virgi^jp would have discouraged 
it, asserting the right to levy taxes in Maryland, 
and in enforcing the revenue laws in Rhode Island, 
as in the instance of the "Gaspee's" seizures. 
All together, George the Third was laying up 
trouble for himself in provoking revolt. The 
last indignity was reached when it was proposed 
to transport offenders to England for trial, the 
authority for which Virginia appointed a committee 
to inquire into ; also another committee to cor- 
respond with other colonies. Five colonies followed 
the example, and the first steps toward union had 
been taken by July, 1773. 

This action was seen to be timely in the Hght 
of events which soon followed. The first was the 
arrival of three shiploads of tea ; a fourth was lost 
on the shore of Cape Cod. In token of their 
denial of the right to tax them without their con- 
sent the colonists had abjured the use of tea, 
although by the removal of duties of export its 
cost was made only half the price in England. 
It was an attractive bait for loyalty, thrown to 
a thrifty and tea-loving people ; but principle was 
proof against even half-price tea — that is, the 
principle of the liberty party. The removal of 
duties was also designed to relieve the East India 
Company, which had an accumulation of 17,000- 
000 pounds unsold in its warehouses, threatening 



Taxed Tea 135 

a loss of 400,000 pounds sterling annually to the gov- 
ernment.^ But, although the duty was remitted, 
the king would not give up his threepenny 
principle. He meant to be a king in all his do- 
minions, and as Lord North said, ''to try the 
question with America." He had made it easy for 
the horse to come to the trough; the beast had got 
to drink. Nothing but the proverbial difficulty 
intervened, namely, the brute's will. He had the 
national thirst for the beverage, and brewed all 
sorts of substitutes. It was sheer perversity, 
and this must be overcome. Accordingly, in the 
fall of 1773, cargoes of the herb were sent to the 
principal towns along the coast. Agents and 
consignees refused to receive it, and it was stored 
or sent back to London from three ports. Boston 
sent it elsewhere. 

First, of course, a town-meeting was held, 
swelled by the inhabitants of six other towns to 
a mass-meeting in Old South, resolving that the 
tea should be sent back. The king's officials took 
fright and fled to the Castle for safety. Clear- 
ance papers could not be had ; the governor 
could not let the ships pass out ; the people would 
not let the tea be landed. On the 17th of Decem- 
ber it might legally be seized and stored in the 
Castle for payment of duties. Everybody knows 

1 Half the tea used in Great Britain was contraband, but in the 
Colonies not one-tenth of this commodity paid duty. — Belcher's 
" First American Civil War," i, i8. 



136 John Hancock 

the rest, — the "Mohawks," the broken chests, 
three hundred and forty- two of them; the tea 
in windrows along Dopjiester beach in the morn- 
ing, and great lamentation among the dames of 
Boston. It was the first price of their patriotism ; 
and Admiral Montague out in the harbor was 
adding besides, "You've got to pay the fiddler 
yet." Rigby, Paymaster of the Forces, said in 
Parliament that John Hancock had superintended 
the destruction of the tea. While Sam Adams 
was adjourning the meeting with the words, 
"This meeting can do no more to save the country," 
Hancock was not far from the notorious Captain 
Mackintosh, leader of the South End toughs, 
who boasted that his "chickens did the job," 
while Hancock's Cadets, the governor's guard, 
were doubtless in the gang, although the governor 
had recently notified their distinguished colonel 
to have them in readiness for an emergency. 

Four days after the "tea-party," December 21, 
1773, Hancock wrote to his London agents : — 

"We have been much agitated in consequence of the 
arrival of the Tea Ships by the East India Conpany, and 
after every effort was made to Induce the consignees to re- 
turn it from whence it came & all proving ineffectual, in a 
very few Hours the whole of the Tea on Board Bruce, Cofj&n, 
& Hall was thrown into the salt water. The particulars 
I must refer you to Capt. Scott for; indeed I am not ac- 
quainted with them myself, so as to give a Detail. Capt. 
Loring in a Brig with the remainder of the Tea is cast on 
shore at the back of Cape Codd. Philadelphia & York are 



Taxed Tea 137 

Determined the Tea shall not land. I enclose you an ex- 
tract of a letter I Rec'd from Phila,, by which you will see 
the spirit of that people. No one circumstance could 
possibly have taken place more effectively to unite the Colo- 
nies than this manouvre of the Tea. It is Universally 
Resented here & all people of all ranks detest the measure. 
Our papers & Dr. Williamson, who is passenger in Scott, 
will inform you many circumstances. I Determine if my 
Oyle gets up tomorrow my Brigt. Lydia shall depart in six 
days, I shall recommend her to be sold." ^ 

From this point Hancock's letters are interrupted 
for three months by ilhiess, during which his 
correspondence is conducted by William Palfrey, 
his confidential clerk, afterv^ard aide-de-camp to 
Washington at Cambridge and New York. De- 
spite his *' indisposition" he was again elected to 
the General Court, receiving all but two of the 
votes cast. It was a busy and anxious winter, 
and its duties interfered sadly with his com- 
mercial affairs, which also suffered from the dis- 
turbances of the time. 

By the 5th of March he had recovered suffi- 
ciently to bear a fresh honor that had been thrust 
upon him. The patriot party had made the 

^ "His Book," p. 178. Hancock offered to ship back to Eng- 
land at his own expense such stores of tea as were on hand in Bos- 
ton ; an offer which was eagerly accepted and acted upon. — "Be- 
ginnings of the Revolution," Chase, i, i68. If Hancock had 
imported any tea and paid the duty on it, as it seems he had, 
John Adams could say, "Mr H. I believe is justifiable, but I am 
not certain whether he is strictly so." — "Diary," p. 381. But he 
could also say of his own business, "What the deuce has a lawyer 
to do with truth anyway ? " — lb., p. 396. 



138 John Hancock 

most of the street encounter of March, 1770. First, 
they dignihed it by calhng it a Massacre, although 
only five were killed, ^hen they took care to 
revive and recall the memory of it year by year 
on each anniversary.^ Two orators were appointed 
the first year, Thomas Young and James Lovell. 
Joseph Warren and Benjamin Church followed 
in the two succeeding years, dwelling upon the 
first shedding of blood by British soldiers, upon 
the wrongs inflicted by the government, and upon 
rights to be maintained by Englishmen in America. 
The next orator to be chosen was John Hancock. 
He was the natural successor of the last two as 
leaders in the revolt, Sam Adams being always 
first, although not appearing in the list of orators 
who for thirteen years discoursed on the anniver- 
sary of the fight, imtil in 1783 the Fourth of July 
took its place as a national celebration. But 
Adams was sure to be behind the selection of 
speakers, if not their orations. 

1 The following vote was passed year after year with undimin- 
ished zeal for thirteen years : — 

" That the Town make choice of a Proper Person to deliver 
an Oration at such time as may be Judged most convenient to 
commemorate the barbarous Murder of five of our Fellow Citi- 
zens on that fatal Day, and to impress upon our minds the ruinous 
tendency of standing Armies in Free Cities, and the necessity of 
such noble exertions in all future times, as the Inhabitants of the 
Town then made, whereby the dangers of Conspirators against the 
pubhc Liberty may be still frustrated." — " Boston Town Rec- 
ords," 1 771, p. 48. "John Hancock generously offered to put 
the Orator's Desk in Mourning on the Day the Oration is to 
be pronounced." — 76., p. 51. 



Taxed Tea 139 

Hancock's performance was received with ap- 
preciation by his audience. It did not lack au- 
dacity, giving offence to the governor, and partic- 
ularly to officers of the army, and of course to 
Loyalists when he touched upon matters . beyond 
the retaliatory firing by the troops, as "the attempt 
of Parliament to enforce obedience to acts which 
neither God nor man ever authorized them to 
make." His invective against a preference of 
riches to virtue had a force which his known 
wealth gave to it: — "Despise the glare of wealth. 
The people who pay greater respect to a wealthy 
villain than to an honest, upright man in poverty 
almost deserve to be enslaved." It is, however, 
as an expression of the general sentiment of the 
community that" the oration is of value, and the 
following paragraphs may stand for the whole: — 

"It was easy to foresee the consequences which so naturally 
followed upon sending troops into America. It was reason- 
able to expect that troops who knew the errand they were 
sent upon would treat the people whom they were to sub- 
jugate with a cruelty and haughtiness which too often buries 
the honorable character of a soldier in the disgraceful name 
of an unfeeling ruffian. The troops, upon their first arrival, 
took possession of our senate-house, and pointed their 
cannon against the judgment-hall, and even continued them 
there whilst the Supreme Court of judicature for the prov- 
ince was actually sitting to decide upon the lives and for- 
tunes of the king's subjects. Our streets nightly resounded 
with the noise of riot and debauchery; our peaceful citizens 
were hourly exposed to shameful insults, and often felt the 
effects of their violence and outrage. But this was not all. 



140 John Hancock 



As though they thought it not enough to violate our civil 
rights, they endeavored to deprive us of our religious priv- 
ileges; to vitiate our morals, and thereby render us deserving 
of destruction. Hence th^Ride din of arms which broke in 
upon your solemn devotions in your temples, on that day hal- 
lowed by Heaven, and set apart by God himself for his pecul- 
iar worship. Hence impious oaths and blasphemies so often 
tortured your unaccustomed ear. Hence all the arts which 
idleness and luxury could invent were used to betray our 
youth of one sex into extravagance and effeminacy, and the 
other to infamy and ruin. And did they not succeed but too 
well; Did not a reverence for religion decay ? Did not our 
youth forget they were Americans, and, regardless of the 
admonitions of the wise and aged, servilely copy from their 
tyrants those vices which must finally overthrow the empire 
of Great Britain ? . . . 

"But I forbear, and come reluctantly to the scenes of that 
dismal night, when in such quick succession we felt the ex- 
tremes of grief, astonishment, and rage; when heaven in 
anger, for a dreadful moment suffered hell to take the reins; 
when Satan with his chosen band opened the sluices of New 
England blood, and sacrilegiously polluted our land with 
the dead bodies of her guiltless sons. . . . 

"Dark and designing knaves, murderers, and parricides! 
how dare you tread upon the earth which has drunk the 
blood of slaughtered innocence shed by your hands? how 
dare you breathe this air which wafted to the ear of heaven 
the groans of those who fell a sacrifice to your accursed am- 
bition ? But if the laboring earth doth not expand her jaws; 
if the air you breathe is not commissioned to be minister of 
death; yet, hear it, and tremble; the eye of Heaven pene- 
trates the darkest chambers of the soul; and you, though 
screened from human observation, must be arraigned, must 
lift up your hands, red with the blood of those whose death 
you have procured, at the tremendous bar of God. 



Taxed Tea I41 

"But I gladly quit the theme of death — I would not 
dwell too long upon the horrid effects which have already 
followed from quartering regular troops in this town; let our 
misfortunes instruct posterity to guard against these evils. 
Standing armies are sometimes composed of persons who 
have rendered themselves unfit to Hve in civil society; who 
are equally indifferent to the glory of a George or a Louis; 
who for the addition of a penny a day to their wages, would 
desert from the Christian Cross, and fight under the Cres- 
cent of the Turkish Sultan; from such men as these, what 
has not a state to fear ? with such as these, usurping Caisar 
passed the Rubicon; with such as these, he humbled mighty 
Rome and forced the mistress of the world to own a master 
in a traitor. These are the men whom sceptred robbers 
now employ to frustrate the designs of God, and render vain 
the bounties which his gracious hand pours indiscriminately 
upon his creatures." ^ 

So far as these quotations go the effect of war 
upon morality, especially in connection with the 
presence of troops quartered in the town, is a 
principal part of his theme. If it had a purpose 
it was to keep those regiments out of the town by 
portraying the danger to some of the citizens and 
their families by having them so near, presumably 
to Loyalists, as Patriots had no fear of the wiles 
of their foes, not even of the gallant officers who 
were not unwelcome in some Tory houses. 

The portrayal of the first encounter would 
emphasize the animosity to be cherished and 
maintained against British soldiers, and ultimately 
inform the home government how they were de- 
tested, and perhaps foster a spirit of resistance 
* For the entire oration see Loring's " Hundred Boston Orators." 



142 John Hancock 

to their intrusion, which might be useful if further 
incursions were made. Other commonplaces of 
the occasion were treaHQ, according to the testi- 
mony of John Adams, in a manner beyond his 
own and everybody's expectation. Hancock's ap- 
pearance was imposing and the impression most 
favorable. He was a graceful and dignified 
speaker, already accustomed to large assemblies 
and the trying duties of a presiding officer.^ 

But who had the impertinence to suggest that 
Sam Adams, who presided on that occasion and 
thanked the speaker in the name of the town for 
his ''spirited and elegant oration," had a large 
share in its composition? It is not necessary 
to suppose that he contributed anything beyond 
suggestion and revision, such as party advisers 
have always been known to give their leaders on 
important occasions. Hancock's letters show that 
some corrections would improve them; and doubt- 
less the same was true of his oration : still there 
is nothing in it that was out of the range of cur- 
rent thought at the date of its delivery. Adams 
himself was not a remarkable writer at first, but 
by constant practice in newspapers that were 
always open to him he at length attained a pro- 
ficiency which was most serviceable to the cause 
he championed. 

If in his zeal to magnify Adams his great-grand- 

* " Sam Adams heard with admiration John Hancock, who might 
be trusted not to fall below the topmost altitude of the occasion." 
— Trevelyan, "American Revolution," 11, 276. 



Taxed Tea 1 43 

son biographer intended to honor him by asserting 
that ''it was known to a few that he composed 
nearly the whole of this oration for his friend," 
he involved both men in a disingenuous proceed- 
ing, to say the least.^ Unfortunately he bases his 
statement upon a letter written thirteen years 
later, which was lost, and upon the word of Adams's 
daughter and a nephew who used to say that the 
two patriots were often closeted together before 
the oration was delivered. A scurrilous pamphlet- 
eer in England also wrote: "That mighty wise 
patriot, Mr. John Hancock, has lately repeated 
a hash of abusive, treasonable stuff, composed 
for him by the joint efforts of the Rev. Divine, 
Samuel Cooper, that Rose of Sharon, and the very 
honest Samuel Adams, Clerk." And at home the 
Tory Dr. Bolton, in a lampooning oration the next 
year, said of the two: "But generous John scorns 
to let him (Adams) starve ; his purse strings have 
been at Sam's disposal ever since he assisted in 
making the oration delivered by John, on the 5th 
of March, 1774, to a crowded audience of Narra- 
gansett Indians." There is some smoke here, 
but how much fire it is impossible to tell at this 
distant day. When it is remembered that the 
quantity of smoke depends upon the poor quality 
of rubbish thrown upon the fire, large allowance 
may be made for both the orator and his adviser. 
It is better to look at the speech itself. 

1 Wells's "Life of Samuel Adams," ii, 138. 



144 ]^^^ Hancock 

It is an illuminating comment on the state of 
public feeling, and upon the standards of oratory 
at the time, that Hanc(^'s oration should excite 
great admiration. Contemporary testimony pro- 
nounced him a "graceful speaker, self-possessed 
and dignified, and having a good understanding of 
his townsmen." The address was beyond what 
would be expected of a business man, although 
he was well educated and should have been well 
read in the literature current in New England. 
If the rhetoric of the oration is turgid and its tone 
verging upon bombast, the excited frame of mind 
and the unformed taste of the crowd which filled 
Old South may account for its reception ''with 
universal applause." It was certainly a bold 
flight and evidently a successful feat in oratorical 
aviation, due largely to the sustaining power of 
a buoyant atmosphere in a sympathetic assembly. 
For a first attempt the speaker had every reason 
to congratulate himself; as he was also admired and 
commended by his friends. When John Adams 
recorded that ''the composition, the pronunciation, 
the action, all exceeded the expectation of every- 
body," he included two qualities out of three that 
must have been the speaker's own; and when 
Hancock in closing pointed out Samuel Adams as 
"one of those who should grace the annals of 
history," it must be supposed that this was a 
sentence from his own pen which Adams would not 
have had the assurance to write. If, again^ Adams 



Taxed Tea 145 

was responsible for a large part of the speech, 
his self-complacency must have been gratified 
when he thanked Hancock in the name of the town 
for his oration and requested a copy for publica- 
tion. When they next met they may have tried 
to reconcile a seeming inconsistency by recalling 
the needs of the hour. Perhaps they smiled at 
each other as the Roman Augurs did when the 
people had gone away. 

This effort in a period of ill health so taxed 
Hancock's depleted energies that, when five days 
after he was chosen moderator of a town-meeting, 
he was unable to preside. Yet he was again 
elected one of the Board of Selectmen, also one 
of the firewardens of the town, a humble but 
responsible office of superintending citizens' efforts 
at a conflagration, even to authorizing the blow- 
ing up of buildings. A greater honor was thrust 
upon him May 10, when he was unanimously 
elected to the General Court, with Gushing, Sam 
Adams, and William Phillips as associates.^ The 
Court met a fortnight later, called together by 
Governor Hutchinson just before his departure 

* On July 26 he was elected one of the Committee of Safety, 
consisting of seven members, and was by them chosen their chair- 
man. Their business was "to consider proper measures to be 
adopted for the common safety during those exigencies of our pub- 
lic affairs which may reasonably be expected from acts of the Brit- 
ish Parliament altering the course of justice and annihilating our 
free Constitution." The powers of this Committee were large 
and general. "Hancock was the most notable member." — 
Trevelyan's "American Revolution," i, 272. 



146 Jc>hn Hancock 

for England. Gage as his successor and Captain 
General adjourned the Assembly to meet at Salem 
on June g, by royal coifl^iand, in order to remove 
all seditious elements out of Boston. Its port was 
closed on the first of the month to all incoming 
vessels, and after the 14th none were to be allowed 
to depart, not even a ferry boat to Cambridge, 
until the town should pay for the tea it had pitched 
into the harbor. 

It is difficult at this distance to adjust the destruc- 
tion of 12,000 pounds sterling worth of merchandise 
with the noble aims of patriots. The mob was not 
raised by a sudden gust of fury, hut was a well-or- 
ganized crowd that had time enough to deck itself in 
the toggery of savages and conceal the identity of 
some well-known elements in it. The only way to 
give it any respectability is to assume that it was 
the culmination of a long violation of oppressive 
revenue laws. Trade and profits had been in- 
terfered with. This outbreak was a protest 
against taxing citizens of a great empire by the 
government. The excuse of non-representation 
in Parliament was a question which in England 
was seldom discussed, notwithstanding the prac- 
tical slighting of a large part of the population 
in the matter of franchise. As the laws and the 
constitution stood, the justification of this riot, 
as in that which destroyed Governor Hutchinson's 
house, library, and other valuables, must be 
found in the fact that it was one step towards 



Taxed Tea 147 

independence, although unnecessary and lawless. 
It does not contribute to the glory of the final 
achievement as compared with other pages of its 
entire record. 

Of course the British government regarded the 
outbreak as a bold defiance of its authority, and 
the king was irate that his assertion of royal 
prerogative had been scorned by a Boston mob, 
in which, as has always been the case, there was 
more or less of broadcloth. Consequently five 
repressive measures were hurried through Parlia- 
ment, — closing the port of Boston; ^ appointing 
chief magistrates by the king and upper house; 
hampering town-meetings; sending persons to 
England for trial; and quartering troops upon 
citizens. A few protested against taking away 
the privileges in a fortnight which colonists had 
enjoyed for a hundred and fifty years, but the 
majority of the Commons and all the Lords voted 
for the punitive measures to the great delight of 
the king. By June i Boston harbor was blockaded 
with a line of British ships and in a few days troops 
and guns were landed. The town was in General 
Gage's hands, out of business and practically 
out of food. The offer of wharves came from 
Marblehead ; supplies and money from towns and 
cities, even from London and Montreal .^ Differ- 

1 For the text of the Boston Port Bill, which annoyed the town 
and all the sympathizing provinces beyond everything else, see 
MacDonald's "Select Charters," p. 337. 

2 For examples of reUef from other colonics see "Mass. Hist. 
Soc. Coll.," IV, 22, 45, 83. 



148 John Hancock 

ing communities began to crystallize around the 
idea of similar interests and the need of mutual 
assistance. A congress ^ the colonies was called 
to meet at Philadelphia. Rhode Island was the 
first to choose delegates ; Massachusetts two days 
later ; other colonies following in the next month, 
and on September 5, 1774, fifty-five deputies from 
twelve colonies constituted the first Continental 
Congress. 



CHAPTER X 

PROVINCIAL CONGRESS 

Under the pressure maintained by men-of-war 
in Boston harbor a large number of citizens ad- 
vocated an indemnity to the East India Company ; 
but at a town-meeting called to consider the mat- 
ter no one dared openly to sustain the proposal. 
Meantime the Assembly at Salem was gradually 
coming to a counter movement. This was to 
elect five delegates to meet those who had been 
or should be appointed from other colonies, to 
constitute the First Continental Congress. It was 
a bold measure, managed by Sam Adams with 
great labor, skill, and secrecy, and passed behind 
closed doors. Several wished to escape, but Adams 
had the key in his pocket. One got out on the plea 
of illness, and straightway told the governor what 
was going on. Gage's messenger, sent to dismiss 
the Assembly, could not obtain admittance and 
had to read the order to an outside crowd from the 
stairway. Five delegates meanwhile were chosen, 
— James Bowdoin, Thomas Cushing, Samuel 
Adams, John Adams, and Robert Treat Paine.^ 

1 For members of Congress from Massachusetts and other col- 
onies see "Journals of Continental Congress," i, i6. 



150 John Hancock 

The absence of John Hancock's name from this 
list is so noteworthy as to provoke inquiry. When 
the Assembly met at Salem Sam Adams was 
occupied with a commmee meeting in Boston 
and was delayed so long that his friends, taunted 
by Tories with the question, ''Where is your 
leader ?" began to fear that a report was true which 
was circulating that Adams and Hancock had been 
arrested and were to be transported to England 
for trial. ^ At length Adams appeared, and order- 
ing a gold-laced functionary out of the secretary's 
chair proceeded to his clerical duties. It has 
been said that Hancock waited to take Adams to 
Salem in his carriage and entered the hall with him. 
If so, there may have been an understanding be- 
tween them as they drove on the road that Han- 
cock should remain in charge of affairs at home, 
while a less useful man should complete the num- 
ber of the delegation to Philadelphia. This sup- 
position is strengthened by the circumstance that 
John Adams, who had not been the most ardent 
of liberty men, was moderator at a town-meeting 
over which Hancock would naturally have presided 
if he had not been occupied elsewhere. Likewise 
he may have surrendered a place in favor of John 
Adams as delegate to the Congress, which seems 

^ The British general Mackay told Governor Hutchinson at 
Bath in 1775 that he wondered Hancock had not been secured. It 
was reported in England that he had absconded on the arrival of 
the troops; afterward found to be untrue. — "Diary and Letters 
o£ Thomas Hutchinson," by Peter O. Hutchinson, pp. 349, 356. 



Provincial Congress 151 

to have increased the devotion of the latter to 
the patriot cause, as it certainly brought him to 
the beginning of an eminent career. Among prom- 
inent men who were not delegates to the first Con- 
gress were Otis, Hawley, Jefferson, Hamilton, and 
Franklin. The same question with regard to the 
reasons why they were not elected deputies might 
be raised in the case of each one as in the instance 
of Hancock. Absence from this Congress does not 
appear to have much significance. 

In any case, Hancock was unusually busy during 
the summer and until the next meeting of the 
Assembly in October, but not with his commercial 
affairs, for his ships were moored at his wharf and 
the warehouse deserted. Not even a boat could 
be rowed to Long Wharf, nor a scow from the 
harbor islands with sheep, nor a Gloucester smack 
bring a load of fish. Provisions must come by 
land or not at all. The Board of Selectmen, of 
which Hancock was a member, met from week 
to week to consider many questions which were 
new by reason of the blockaded town's changed 
condition. But when at the request of General 
Gage a meeting was called to receive notice that 
two Acts of Parliament recently passed forbade 
the calling of town-meetings without special 
license from the governor^ Hancock was con- 
veniently absent; and the others were not dis- 
turbed, as they happened to have two adjourned 
meetings on their hands with the power of further 



152 John Hancock 

and indefinite adjournment, and with enough 
unfinished business to last through the year. 
Hancock found plenty to do while the delegates 
were in Philadelphia in September, and until the 
next meeting of the General Court in October. 

What Congress did in its first session is not so 
immediately a part of this story as the acts of 
the Second Congress the following year; but the 
sending of delegates from Massachusetts was the 
colony's contribution to an event of great con- 
sequence. The inhabitants of Boston were con- 
scious of its importance and had voted five hundred 
pounds for the expenses of the deputies. They 
were also profoundly interested in the spectacular 
departure of their representatives in a coach and 
four provided for them, preceded by two white 
servants mounted and armed, and followed by 
four blacks in livery, starting near the Hancock 
mansion in full view of the British regiments 
encamped on the Common. Then came a parting 
dinner, given by compatriots at Coolidge's in 
Watertown, with many words of cheer and good 
hope. Another public dinner at Hartford six 
days later, with an escort to Wethersfield where 
** punch, wine, and coffee were cordially and 
genteelly furnished" by Silas Deane. 

A company of notables met them seven miles 
this side of New Haven, conducting them into the 
town amidst pealing bells and booming cannon. 
There were six days of visiting and feasting, 



Provincial Congress 153 

private and public, in New York; a convoy of 
carriages into Philadelphia, where they had arrived 
after a nineteen days' pilgrimage, *' dirty, dusty, 
and tired," to be quartered at ''the most genteel 
tavern in America" and entertained in company 
with other distinguished persons from other 
colonies for seven days until Congress met. All 
this and more was a series of sensations which 
John Hancock must have regretted the loss of 
when he learned the details by slow returning 
letters. Again he might mourn over not being 
among the illustrious fifty-three who met at the 
City Tavern on the fifth of September and walked 
to Carpenters' Hall. He certainly would have 
been an ornament to the assemblage, outshining 
Samuel Adams dressed in the new suit which his 
friends had provided him, and to which Hancock 
had doubtless contributed liberally. But he could 
not have surpassed Adams in the estimate which 
had been formed of this "chief of the Revolution" 
by deputies from other colonies, and whose opinion 
was to be strengthened by further acquaintance. 
Strict CongregationaUst as he was, Adams made 
a most fortunate stroke at the outset when he 
moved that "Mr. Duche, an Episcopal clergyman, 
might be desired to read prayers to the Congress," 
thereby removing one great cause of disagreement 
by waiving his own religious preferences.^ 

1 This chaplain afterward, in a letter to Washington, avowed his 
sympathies with the Loyalist side. 



154 John Hancock 

The doings of the First Congress, as has been 
remarked, are connected with the career of John 
Hancock only in a preliminary way. They were 
preparatory to the ne^and succeeding meetings 
in bringing together men of opposite prejudices and 
forming them into a working body, consulting 
about common interests and dangers, but slow 
to act with unanimity. The main acts agreed 
upon were the Declaration of Rights and Griev- 
ances, and an Association to suspend trade with 
Great Britain, which became the precursor of 
federal union. Incidentally it was revealed to 
themselves and the British Government that the 
scattered provinces would not permit one of their 
number to be threatened or punished without 
united protest and resistance. 

As might be expected, differences between colonies 
did not disappear in the seven weeks of discussion, 
notwithstanding the general good feeling, which 
was further promoted by the boundless hospitality 
of the town and its inhabitants. The majority 
were for keeping the union and establishing har- 
mony with Great Britain: the minority, repre- 
sented by Massachusetts and Virginia, advocated 
revolt. A test came on the twenty-third day of 
the session, when a plan for proposed union was 
presented, making a Colonial Council an inferior 
branch of Parliament. It came within a single 
vote of adoption; five colonies voting for it, six 
against it. What did pass was, a vote to suspend 



Provincial Congress 155 

trade with Britain, .and to discontinue the slave 
trade. A petition was addressed to the king 
imploring redress of grievances; another to the 
people of Quebec, inviting them to send delegates 
to the next Congress; one also to the people of 
Great Britain, and a memorial to all the colonists. 
The main result, however, was the forming of an 
Association which was to be the beginning of 
union between the several independencies along 
the coast. There was much asseveration and 
protestation of loyalty, and disclaiming and 
denying of intention to separate from England; 
also busy preparation for what might happen. 
Washington wrote in October, 1774, that inde- 
pendence was not desired by any thinking man 
in all North America; yet two months before he 
had said that he would raise a thousand men, 
subsist them, and march at their head to the relief 
of Boston. Two months later he was in command 
of such a force. John Adams's words and Sam 
Adams's are two opposite statements of Massachu- 
setts sentiment, the one for the old order, the 
other for the new; and each had his sympathizers, 
with constant shif tings of opinion and partisans. 
In that transition time John Bunyan's Mr. Facing- 
Both-Ways had here and there a political coun- 
terpart, and Timorous had not a few.^ 

* Even such a radical as Joseph Warren, in his Massacre oration 
of 1775, declared that "an independence of Great Britain is not our 
aim. No, our wish is, that Britain and the colonies, may, like 



156 John Hancock 

Many went over to the patriot side when Gage 
precipitated hostihties by ordering his troops to 
seize the Province's stock of powder stored in 
Charlestown. Militi^ and volunteers flocked 
towards Boston from Worcester and Hampshire 
counties, and from Connecticut, but were stopped 
by messengers from Boston. The governor had 
summoned an assembly of the royal regulation 
pattern to meet at Salem, and then countermanded 
the call. But two hundred and sixty representa- 
tives came and resolved themselves into a Pro- 
vincial Congress and adjourned to Concord, where 
John Hancock was chosen its president. He had 
shown himself a good presiding officer; he was a 
most creditable person, a general favorite, a man 
who had been marked by the home government, 
and a generous contributor who would make 
further sacrifices. Who else so fit for the con- 
spicuous position, and who would be more sensible 
of it and gratified by it ? 

Removing to Cambridge, the congress formed a 
military organization and appointed a committee 
of safety, of which John Hancock was chosen 
chairman, with power to call out the mihtia and 
procure mihtary stores. They also chose three 
generals and ordered the election of company and 
regimental officers. A committee appointed to 
consider the proper time to provide arms and 

the oak and the vine grow together." — Bancroft's "Hist. U. S.," 
VIII, 255. 



Provincial Congress 157 

ammunition reported that the proper time was 
now. Expressions of loyalty to the home govern- 
ment were less profuse than previously. 

After this show of intention to resist hostile 
advances the king declared ''the New England 
governments in a state of rebellion." 

The First Provincial Congress marked the pass- 
ing of legislative authority from the royal gov- 
ernor, with his council and assembly, to the elected 
representatives of the people in the Province of 
Massachusetts — a prelude to future transfers 
in other provinces, and at length in all of them 
together. In their proclamation of an annual 
Thanksgiving, issued over the signature of John 
Hancock, mention of his Majesty, George the Third, 
was for the first time omitted. Moreover the acts 
of this Congress were accepted by the people as of 
equal authority with those of previous assemblies 
under the king's appointed representative, who 
now in the person of General Gage was prac- 
tically set aside. Accordingly he fell back upon 
his military authority and precipitated the con- 
flict. The rift between England and America 
which had been dreaded by many and desired 
by very few now became plain to all. 

In the interval between the adjournment of the 
first Congress, December 10, 1774, and the meeting 
of the second, February i, 1775, Hancock as a 
selectman was occupied daily in devising means 
for the control of the small-pox which the troops 



158 John Hancock 

had brought to town. The disease was not to be 
suppressed easily and it gave the authorities great 
anxiety and care. ^ 

When the Congress met again for its second 
session, with two hundred and fourteen members 
present, Hancock was chosen its president by 
unanimous election. Within four days he was 
putting a motion to direct Colonel Roberson 
to deliver four brass field-pieces and two mortars, 
the property of the Province, to the Committee 
of Safety, which had been appointed to resist 
every attempt at executing the acts of Parliament. 
General Gage also had his eye upon the cannon, 
but when he sent his officers to appropriate them 
nothing but the gun carriages could be found. 
In a school-house where they were supposed to be 
hidden, a box upon which the pedagogue Hol- 
brook was resting his lame foot did not look like 
the lurking-place of field-pieces, and the searching 
party passed by two of the guns. They did good 
service during the war, to be at length enshrined 
in Bunker Hill monument, after further use by the 
Ancient and Honorable Artillery, which burst 
one of them, the "Adams," while the "Hancock" 
reposes in its original integrity with the following 
inscription : — 



Provincial Congress 159 



THE HANCOCK: 



SACRED TO LIBERTY. 



This is one of four cannon which constituted the 

whole train of Field Artillery possessed by the 

British colonies of North America at the 

commencement of the war on the 

19th of April, 1775. 

THIS CANNON 

and its fellow, belonging to a number of citizens 
of Boston were used in many engagements 
during the war. The other two, the 
property of the Government of 
Massachusetts, were taken by 
the enemy. 
By order of the United States, in Congress Assem- 
bled May 19, 1788 

In this second Provincial Congress Hancock 
was chosen to fill the vacancy made by Bowdoin 
in the delegation to the Continental Congress. 
A larger field was opening before him. Neverthe- 
less he did not fail to attend to the affairs nearest 
him in his own town. After the Congress ad- 
journed on February 16 he inquired into an affair 
of the British troops who, headed by their colonel, 
had carried a back-countryman through the 
streets, tarred and feathered. In consequence of 
his part in this inquiry his "elegant house was 



i6o John Hancock 

attacked by a number of officers, who with swords, 
cut and hacked the fence in a most scandalous 
manner and behaved \^ry abusively, by breaking 
people's windows and insulting every person they 
met. On the following night they entered his 
grounds and refused to retire, telHng the owner 
that his house and stable would soon be in their 
hands." 

The second session of the Second Provincial Con- 
gress opened in Concord on the 2 2d of March with 
Hancock in the chair. In eleven days news came 
that Gage's army was to be largely reenforced. 
The Congress appointed a day of fasting and 
prayer, at the same time authorizing the Committee 
of Safety to form and pay six companies of artil- 
lery, urging the volunteer militia and minute-men 
to be on the alert, but forbidding any act provoc- 
ative of hostilities. Like their Cromwellian an- 
cestors they trusted in Divine Providence, and 
like them kept their powder dry. 



CHAPTER XI 



LOVERS IN LEXINGTON 



When the Provincial Congress adjourned on the 
15 th of April Hancock and Adams did not go back 
to Boston, but staid in Lexington with Parson 
Jonas Clark, successor of Hancock's grandfather 
in the parish church. The two patriots had been 
guests at the parsonage during the session of 
Congress at Concord, the younger with better 
reason than the older ; for his aunt Lydia had 
left her home on Beacon Hill after Gage's occupa- 
tion of the town, and had taken refuge in the 
Lexington parsonage. 

About midnight of the eighteenth Paul Revere 
on his ride into the country after he had seen the 
two lanterns in the belfry of North Church brought 
the message which Dr. Warren sent, that the in- 
habitants might expect a force from Gage which 
had started for Concord to destroy mihtary stores.^ 
Evidently the messenger knew the importance 
of the minister's house and where to find the two 
men most prominent in affairs. The eight sentries 

^ On the object of invading Lexington and Concord see Force, iv, 
"American Archives," 11, 386, and F. V. Greene's "Revolutionary- 
War," p. 3. 



1 62 John Hancock 

posted there might have indicated the presence 
of important persons; but to their caution to 
Revere not to make a i^ise he replied, ''You will 
have noise enough before morning." Before out- 
siders got word Hancock caused the meeting-house 
bell to be set ringing for the remainder of the night, 
a signal understood throughout the countryside, 
calling together a hundred and fifty men before 
daybreak. Meantime he began to clean a gun 
and sword and to put his accoutrements in order 
with the intention of taking command of the men 
collecting on the common. From this he was with 
great difficulty dissuaded by Rev. Mr. Clark and 
Mr. Adams, the latter clapping him on the shoulder 
and remarking, ''That is not our business; we 
belong to the cabinet." It was daybreak before 
Hancock could be persuaded that it was improper 
for a man in his official position to expose himself 
to capture by British troops, who had him and his 
comrade in particular view and had been inquiring 
as to their whereabouts. 

When the courage of Adams and Hancock are 
considered comparatively, the latter appeared 
ready to supplement his avowed sentiments by 
sacrificing his life as well as his fortune for the 
cause. Adams, with no property to lose, might 
have had greater devotion to liberty, but his en- 
thusiasm for it, voiced in a hundred meetings and 
penned in as many newspaper articles, did not 
compel him that night to call for musket and 



Lovers in Lexington 163 

sword when the enemy was approaching. No 
doubt his prudence was wise, and his wisdom 
needed more in council than his presence on 
Lexington Green with the ''embattled farmers"; 
but the uncalculating determination of Hancock 
to fight, regardless of his wealth, high station, 
and great usefulness ehcits admiration for a self- 
surrendering spirit more noble, if less wise, than 
his companion's prudence. For Adams, however, 
it may be urged that his withdrawal from danger 
was as essential to the conduct and ultimate suc- 
cess of the movement as the rearward position of 
a general in the field, where he may be able to 
direct the storm of battle. At any rate, Adams had 
a full sense of his friend's importance, as he well 
might have, and also of the need of preserving 
both their lives for further usefulness.^ And he 
always had a consciousness of how great an advan- 
tage to the cause his friend Hancock could be made 
through his own wise direction. 

There was another element in the resolve of 
Hancock to take the field which ennobles his deter- 
mination and himself. To the protests of Adams 
and Parson Clark, Hancock's aunt Lydia would 
add her entreaties, which could not have been 
without weight with the man who had been as a 

^ " The king had excepted only from the benefit of pardon Samuel 
Adams and John Hancock, whose offences were deemed to be of 
too flagitious a nature to admit of any other consideration than 
condign punishment." — "Life and Times of George Washington," 
Schroeder and Lossing, ii, 748. 



164 John Hancock 

son to her. But besides all these protests of 
prudence against endangering a valuable life 
there was a voice in th^ackground which was of 
more weight and efhcapy than the rest. When 
her chariot rolled out of Boston Madam Hancock 
had by her side a niece, Dorothy Quincy, who 
had for some time been under her care and pro- 
tection. The maiden was the fourth in a succes- 
sion of the same name, running through several 
generations of the Braintree family, the last member 
of which, Edmund, had Hved in Boston on the 
south side of Summer Street, from 1740 to 1752, 
where the daughter Dorothy was born. May 10, 
1747. Within five years her father left an unsuc- 
cessful mercantile business in town and returned 
to Braintree as a gentleman farmer, to whose 
homestead the principal men of the Province were 
attracted by five beautiful daughters. Among 
the notables came John Hancock, having in mind 
Dorothy Quincy, ten years younger than himself. 
Tradition has it that he avowed his affection for 
her before the Revolution broke out, and that 
plans were made to celebrate the wedding in the 
north parlor of her home, which had been adorned 
with new wall paper from Paris, appropriately 
figured "with the forms of Venus and Cupid in 
blue and pendant wreaths of flowers in red." 
Unfortunately the British arrived before the happy 
day and caused divisions and dispersions of families 
in the chaotic and unsafe years that followed. 



Lovers in Lexington 165 

Dorothy's father took refuge with an older daughter 
in Lancaster, and the girl herself was sufficiently 
approved by Madam Hancock to be taken into 
her home as the fiancee of her nephew. It was 
this relationship between John Hancock and 
Dorothy Quincy which gives special emphasis to 
the strength of his patriotism on the night when he 
could hardly be restrained from the Lexington 
encounter. In the face of appeals by her elders 
in the household his bride-elect would not be 
likely to gird on his sword and send him into the 
fight. If she had, he might have reenforced his 
own impulse by hers and gone, despite other coun- 
sel ; but as hers, if like her aunt's, would be con- 
trary to his own inclination and purpose, it is to 
his credit that his determination persisted as long 
as it did. Moreover he might know that the 
capture of himself and Adams was as much the 
object of the expedition as the seizing of a few 
military stores at Concord. Therefore his devo- 
tion to the cause of American freedom from British 
control was placed beyond the charge of selfish 
ambition through his willingness to range himself 
with the yeomanry of Middlesex in the first onset, 
and to sacrifice life in addition to fortune in the 
cause he had championed. 

The counsels of a wise prudence prevailed, and 
he allowed himself to be dissuaded from exposure 
to death or arrest. One of the British ofiicers 
sent out in advance of the troops had been inquir- 



1 66 John Hancock 

ing where Clark's tavern was; he should have 
asked for Clark's parsonage. When Adams 
learned this he judged that it was time to take 
himself and Hancock over to the Rev. Mr. Jones's 
house in Woburn. Dorothy was looking out of 
an upper window watching the fight and speeding 
their departure when *'one of the first British 
bullets whizzed by her aunt's head as she stood 
in a door below and struck the barn." A message 
soon came saying where the two companions were 
and inviting the family to follow and bring a 
fine salmon that had been provided for dinner. 
It was taken along and cooked. Just as the com- 
pany were sitting down to it a Lexington man, 
frightened by the troops returning from their 
raid upon Concord, shouted, ''The British are 
coming! The British are coming ! " Leaving their 
anticipated salmon, the two patriots were conducted 
by Cuff, the parson's negro, through the woods to 
Amos Wyman's house in a corner of Billerica at 
the Bedford line, where cold boiled pork, cold 
potatoes, and brown bread awaited them. It was 
on this forced march that Adams exclaimed, 
"What a glorious morning is this!" referring to 
the beginning of the contest for liberty. His 
more practical companion, surveying no doubt 
a resplendent costume unfitted for such a flight, 
asked the reason of what appeared an ill-timed 
enthusiasm, which he had attributed to the weather, 
in his own mind qualified by hunger and a hasty 



Lovers in Lexington 167 

walk through the pastures of Woburn in silk hose 
and velvet coat. Adams's old brown coat afforded 
no such distraction. 

The British retreat to Boston under a galHng 
fire from provincials, with a loss of two hundred 
and seventy-three killed, wounded, and missing, 
and of ninety- three on the American side, left 
Lexington a safe place for the returning fugitives*. 
Then occurred a lovers' quarrel. Dorothy had 
left her father in Boston. With a daughter's 
solicitude she intended to return to him the next 
day, and told Hancock so. *'No, Madam, you 
shall not return as long as there is a British bayonet 
in Boston." Her answer was as spirited as might 
be expected of a Quincy : "Recollect, Mr. Hancock, 
I am not under your control yet. I shall go to 
my father to-morrow."^ When she gave an 
account of the contention forty-eight years after- 
wards, she added, ''At that time I should have 
been very glad to get rid of him." But the matri- 
monial designs of Madam Hancock were not to 
be thwarted and she kept the niece within her 
reach. Therefore the two set out on a journey 
to Fairfield, Connecticut, when Adams and Han- 
cock took their departure for Philadelphia, whither 
they proceeded from the Provincial Congress to 
the Continental after the Lexington and Concord 

* A letter from Edmund Quincy to his daughter Dorothy may 
be found in the "Transactions of the Colonial Society of Massa- 
chusetts," VI, 319. 



1 68 John Hancock 

raid. Had it not been for their prudent excursion 
to Billerica their journey might have been to 
London to answer a charge of treason to the realm. 
As for Dorothy's recollection of her early senti- 
ments, some confirmation of them appeared a 
little later. However, allowance can be made for 
the disillusions of nearly half a century and their 
effect upon her memory.^ 

*The "Dorothy Q." of Holmes's poem was his great-grand- 
mother and aunt of Mrs. John Hancock. For an account of the 
"Three Dorothys" see W. S. Kennedy's "OUver Wendell Holmes," 
p. 20. 



CHAPTER XII 

ON THE ROAD TO CONGRESS 

On the 24th of April the two delegates arrived 
at Worcester in advance of three others, John 
Adams, Gushing, and Paine, whence all were to 
proceed together under escort. Not finding the 
rest of the delegation, Hancock wrote in alarm and 
uncertainty to the Committee of Safety at Water- 
town, whither the Provincial Congress had re- 
moved after the disturbance at Concord. 

"Worcester, April 24, 1775. 
"Monday Evening. 

"Gentlemen: 

" Mr. S. Adams and myself, just arrived here, find no 
intelligence from you, and no guard. We hear an ex- 
press has just passed through this place to you, from New 
York, informing that the administration is bent upon push- 
ing matters; and that four regiments are expected there. 
How are we to proceed ? Where are our brethren ? Surely, 
we ought to be supported. I had rather be with you; and[ 
at present, am fully determined to be with you, before I 
proceed. I beg, by return of this express, to hear from you, 
and pray, furnish us with depositions of the conduct of the 
troops, the certainty of their firing first, and every cir- 
cumstance relative to the conduct of the troops from the 
19th instant, to this time, that we may be able to give some 
account of matters as we proceed, especially at Philadelphia, 



170 John Hancock 

also, I beg you would order your secretary to make out an 
account of your proceedings since what has taken place; 
what your plan is; what prisoners we have, and what they 
have of ours; who of note ^|6 killed, on both sides; who 
commands our forces &c. 

"Are our men in good spirits? For God's sake do not 
suffer the spirit to subside, until they have perfected the 
reduction of our enemies. Boston must be entered; the 
troops must be sent away, . . . Our friends are valuable, 
but our country must be saved. I have an interest in that 
town. What can be the enjoyment of that town if I am 
obliged to hold it at the will of Gen. Gage or any one else ? 
I doubt not your vigilance, your fortitude, and resolution. 
Do let us know how you proceed. We must have the Castle. 
Stop up the harbor against large vessels coming. You know 
better what to do than I can point out. Where is Mr. 
Gushing ? Are Mr. Paine and Mr. John Adams to be with 
us? What are we to depend upon? We travel rather as 
deserters, which I will not submit to. I will return and 
join you, if I cannot detain this man, as I want much to 
hear from you. How goes on the Congress ? Who is your 
president? Are the members hearty? Pray remember 
Mr. S. Adams and myself to all friends. God be with you. 

"I am, gentlemen, your faithful and hearty countryman 

"John Hancock. 

"To the Gentlemen Committee of Safety." 

After three days of v^aiting Adams and Hancock 
left Worcester, reaching Hartford in two days, 
on Saturday the 29th. There they held a con- 
ference with Governor Trumbull and planned 
the surprise of Fort Ticonderoga, which was effected 
by Ethan Allen, accompanied by Benedict Arnold, 
on the 9th of May. New York also had the same 



On the Road to Congress 171 

purpose in mind when its Committee of Safety 
voted, "That as Messrs. Adams and Hancock 
are daily expected in this city, the Committee of 
Correspondence and Intelligence wait on them and 
request a private conference on the subject of the 
above letter," which the Albany Committee had 
sent them. But Connecticut, Massachusetts, and 
Vermont troops got the start of New York, and the 
next morning after the conference the fort was 
taken before the commander was fairly awake. 

When Adams and Hancock reached King's 
Bridge on Saturday, May 6, they found that the 
rest of their delegation had passed them some- 
where on the way and had arrived before them. 
John Adams, who had been ill with a fever, wrote in 
his Diary: "I was determined to go as far as I 
could, and instead of venturing on horseback, I 
got into a sulky attended by a servant on horseback, 
and proceeded on the journey. I overtook my 
colleagues before they reached New York." At 
King's Bridge they were joined by the Connecticut 
delegation, and made their entry into New York 
in the manner described by Hancock in the follow- 
ing letter to Dorothy Quincy. 

"New York, Sabbath Even'g, May 7, 1775. 
"My Dear Dolly: 

"I Arrived well, tho' Fatigued, at King's Bridge at Fifty 
Minutes after Two o'clock yesterday, where I found the 
Delegates of Massachusetts and Connect', with a Number 
of Gentlemen from New York, and a Guard of the Troop. 



172 John Hancock 

I Din'd and then set out in the Procession for New York, 
the Carriage of your humble servant of course being first 
in the Procession. When we Arriv'd within three Miles 
of the City we were Met l^the Grenadier Company and 
Regiment of the City Militia under Arms, Gentlemen in 
Carriages and on Horseback, and many Thousand of Per- 
sons on Foot, the Roads fill'd with people, and the greatest 
Cloud of Dust I ever saw. In this Scituation we Entered 
the City, and passing thro' the Principal Streets of New 
York amidst the Acclamations of Thousands were set Down 
at Mr. Francis's. After Entering the House three Huzzas 
were Given, and the People by Degrees Dispersed. 

"When I got within a mile of the City my Carriage was 
stopt, and Persons appearing with proper Harnesses in- 
sisted upon Taking out my Horses and Dragging me into 
and through the City, a Circumstance I would not have 
had Taken place upon any consideration, not being fond of 
such Parade. 

"I Beg'd and Intreated that they would Suspend the 
Design, and ask'd it as a favour, and the Matter Subsided, 
but when I got to the Entrance of the City, and the Numbers 
of Spectators increas'd to perhaps Seven Thousand or more, 
they Declar'd they would have the Horses out and would 
Drag me through the City. I repeated my Request, and 
I was obliged to apply to the Leading Gentlemen in the pro- 
cession to intercede with them not to Carry their Designs 
into Execution; as it was very disagreeable to me. They 
were at last prevail'd upon and I proceded. I was much 
obliged to them for their good wishes and Opinion, in short 
no Person could possibly be more notic'd than myself. 

"After having Rode so fast and so many Miles you may 
well think I was much Fatigu'd, but no sooner had I got 
into the Room of the House we were Visited by a great 
number of Gentlemen of the first Character in the city, who 
Took up the Evening. 



On the Road to Congress 173 

"About 10 o'clock I Sat down to Supper of Fried Oysters, 
&c., at II o'clock went to Capt. Sears's (the King's Inn) and 
Lodg'd. Arose at 5 o'clock, went to the House first men- 
tioned, Breakfasted, Dress'd, and went to Meeting, where 
I heard a most excellent Sermon by Mr. Livingston, Re- 
turned to the same House, a most Elegant Dinner provided. 

"The Grenadier Company of the City is to Continue 
under Arms during our stay here, and we have a guard of 
them Night and Day at our Doors. This is a sad mortifica- 
tion for the Tories, things look well here. 

"Tomorrow morning propose to Cross the Ferry. We 
are to have a large Guard in several Boats and a Number 
of the City Gentlemen will attend us over. I can't think 
they will Dare attack us. 

"I beg you will write me. Do acquaint me every Cir- 
cumstance Relative to that Dear Aunt of Mine; write 
Lengthy and often. Mr. Nath. Barrett and Mr. Buck are 
here. People move slowly out, they tell me, from Boston. 
My best Respects to mr. and Mrs. Burr. My poor Face and 
Eyes are in a most shocking scituation, burnt up and much 
swell'd and a little painfull. I don't know how to manage 
with it. 

"Is your Father out ? As soon as you know, do acquaint 
me, and send me the letters, and I will then write him. 
Pray let me hear from you by every Post. God bless you 
my Dr Girl, and believe me most Sincerly, 

•"Yours most Affectionately, 

"John Hancock." » 

On Wednesday, the loth, the delegates from 

*"N. E. Historical and Genealogical Register," xix, 135. 
The orthography of the eighteenth century does not denote 
illiteracy in a time when modes of spelling were optional, and 
every man did that which was right in his own eyes, — a condition 
which threatens to return in trolley-car advertising and elsewhere. 
See ** Letters of James Murray, Loyalist," p. 153. 



174 John Hancock 

Massachusetts, Connecticut, and New York, four- 
teen in all, proceeded on their triumphal progress 
towards Philadelphia. A. great crowd attended 
them to the North River ferry, over which they were 
escorted by five hundred gentlemen and two 
hundred mihtia under arms. On the New Jersey 
side a number of gentlemen, a troop of horse, and a 
company of grenadiers accompanied them to 
Newark, where they were publicly entertained.^ 
Then they were escorted to EKzabethtown, at the 
border of which they were met and conducted 
into the place by its chief citizens and the military. 
Similar honors attended them all the way to 
Philadelphia. The following account by Curwen, 
the Tory, in his ''Journal" of May lo, 1775, 
gives a graphic but not entirely flattering picture 
of the last stage of the journey. 

"Early in the morning a great number of persons rode 
out several miles, hearing that the Eastern delegates were 
approaching, when, about eleven o'clock the cavalcade 
appeared (I being near the upper end of Fore Street) ; first, 
two or three hundred gentlemen on horseback, preceded, how- 
ever, by the newly chosen city military officers, two and two, 
with drawn swords, followed by John Hancock and Samuel 
Adams in a phaeton and pair, the former looking as if his 
journey and high living, or solicitude to support the dignity 
of the first man in Massachusetts, had impaired his health. 
Next came John Adams and Thomas Gushing in a single 
horse chaise; behind followed Robert Treat Paine, and after 
him the New York delegation and some from the Province 

* "I drank Madeira at a great rate, and found no inconvenience 
in it." — John Adams's "Diary," p. 381. 



On the Road to Congress 175 

of Connecticut etc. etc. The rear was brought up by a hun- 
dred carriages, the streets crowded with people of all ages, 
sexes, and ranks. The procession marched with a slow, 
solemn pace. On its entrance into the city, all the bells 
were set ringing and chiming, and every mark of respect 
that could be was expressed, not much, I presume, to the 
secret liking of their fellow-delegates from the other Colo- 
nies, who doubtless had to digest the distinction as best they 
could." 

It was all dear to Hancock's heart, but not to 
Samuel Adams's, who with his democratic pro- 
clivities did not favor such parade ; as indicated 
by the account of another and similar occasion : — 

"The people were attempting to take the horses from 
the carriage in order to drag it themselves. Mr. Adams 
remonstrated against it. His companion, pleased with the 
intended compliment, was desirous of enjoying it, and en- 
deavored to remove the objection of Mr. Adams, to which 
the last replied : * If you wish to be gratified with so humili- 
ating a spectacle, I will get out and walk, for I will not coun- 
tenance an act by which my fellow-citizens shall degrade 
themselves into beasts.' This prevented its execution." 

John Adams's sense of the performance as re- 
corded in a letter to his wife is characteristic of a 
man who wasted no compliments : — 

"P. S. I wish I had given you a complete history from 
the beginning to the end of the journey, of the behavior of 
my compatriots. No mortal tale can equal it. I will tell 
you in the future, but you shall keep it a secret. The 
fidgets, the whims, the caprice, the vanity, the superstition, 

the irritabiUty of some of us is enough to 

"Yours." 

How he might have finished the sentence can 



176 John Hancock 

be imagined from other letters, one to Warren, 
for instance, in which he wrote: "A certain 
great fortune and piddling genius, whose fame has 
been trumpeted so loudly, has given a silly cast to 
our whole doings." ^ And again, of General Lee : 
**He is a queer creature, but you must love his dogs 
if you love him, and forgive a thousand whims 
for the sake of the soldier and the scholar." 

It is fortunate that in the absence of other side- 
lights on this period the "Diary" of John Adams is 
available, as well as the '^Familiar Letters" to and 
from his wife. It is unfortunate that similar cor- 
respondence by less dogmatic and unsparing critics 
of this episode should not have been preserved. 

* Not so bad as the Virginia Tory who wrote: "Hancock is 
one of the greatest desperadoes living." — Hosmer's "Life of Sam- 
uel Adams," p. 311. 

But all congressmen were glad enough to have Hancock furnish 
his coach and equipage when the first French Minister arrived to 
convey him in state from the ship to the hall where they were assem- 
bled. Henry Marchant of Rhode Island thought that " the most 
interesting interview that ever took place was that between the 
French plenipotentiary and John Hancock." He did not fail to 
observe that when he was formally received by Congress "the 
chairs of the President and the Minister were of equal size." 
— "France in the American Revolution," J. B. Perkins, p. 252. 



CHAPTER XIII 

IN THE SECOND CONTINENTAL CONGRESS 

The fellow pilgrims arrived in Philadelphia 
on the day that the Second Congress assembled, 
May lo, 1775, a few hours after the surrender of 
Ticonderoga, of which Hancock would not hear 
for eight days. Did he remember that it was 
also Dorothy Quincy's twenty-eighth birthday?^ 
Doubtless there were numerous distractions in 
Carpenters' Hall. He met there men whose names 
were familiar in all the land, as distinguished in 
their several provinces as his own in Massachusetts : 
FrankHn, Washington, Richard Henry Lee, Peyton 
Randolph, to be joined later by Patrick Henry, 
Clinton, Jay, Livingston, and others of like emi- 
nence. Hancock's fame had preceded him as the 
loser of the sloop ''Liberty," and as the one wealthy 
aristocrat who had sacrificed much for the cause of 
the colonies, a leader and chairman of the Massa- 
chusetts Congress, the co-partner of Samuel Adams 

^ At this time his mansion was occupied by General Clinton, 
who had arrived with Howe and Burgoyne in May, 1775, and had 
taken up his residence in the Hancock house. During the next 
winter the 1750 British soldiers encamped in front of it took the 
fence for fire wood. — "Boston Common — Scenes from Four 
Centuries," Howe, p. 40. 



178 John Hancock 

in exclusion from royal clemency, and with him 
the object of pursuit in order to arrest by the 
king's officers. For th^ reasons and for the 
distinction of his personal presence, from which the 
elegance of his attire did not detract, he was a con- 
spicuous figure in the Assembly. Not even Sam 
Adams in his new suit, about which he had so many 
scruples as to whether its cost should be defrayed 
by the Province, — to which he finally assented, — 
— not even the ''Incendiary" himself was so 
noticeable as his companion. But Adams had no 
jealousy of Hancock's exterior brilliance ; and 
when Randolph was called home to preside over 
the Virginia Legislature,^ leaving vacant the pre- 
siding officer's chair, Adams was ready to nominate 
his colleague to the presidency of Congress, and with 
John Adams to soHcit votes for him. His election 
on the sixteenth day of the session was considered 
a rebuke to George the Third and his Parliament, 
and as an indication of general sympathy with the 
Boston patriot who had forsaken the loyalist posi- 
tion to which he had been committed by political 
and social associations.^ A great honor had been 

1 Not on account of sickness, as sometimes stated. See "Jour- 
nals of Virginia House of Burgesses," 1773-1776, p. 174. 

2 The authentic record of his election, as distinguished from 
later additions, is found in the "Journal of Continental Congress," 
for May 24, 1775,11,59, 

On the second day of the session Hancock laid before Congress 
testimonials relative to the battle of Lexington and other papers 
referring to the course of events in Massachusetts. Guy Carle- 
ton Lee's "History of North America," vi, 120. 



Second Continental Congress 179 

bestowed upon him in fitting recognition of his sac- 
rifices to the cause of protest and revolt. Hitherto 
he had accepted promotion gracefully, if not as a 
matter of course in his own Province, but now 
he was embarrassed by the magnitude of the dis- 
tinction conferred upon him, and his usual self- 
composure did not return until Benjamin Harrison 
had conducted him to the chair amidst general 
acclamation, saying as he left him there, "We 
will show Great Britain how much we value her 
proscriptions." 

If Hancock had not already proved his ability as 
a parliamentarian neither of the Adamses would 
have risked his reputation as an adviser by advocat- 
ing his election ; but his experience and success as 
moderator in Boston town-meetings and as presi- 
dent of the Massachusetts Provincial Congress 
warranted his recommendation by his friends, as 
his reelection by the Congress afterward was an 
endorsement of their advocacy. 

The task before him was a severe test of his 
fitness, since it was no ordinary body over which 
he was called to preside. Men were in it who were 
of greater ability than himself, leaders in Provinces 
which had jealousies and prejudices ; men of widely 
divergent views in politics, rehgion, and in regard 
to the attitude to be assumed toward the mother 
country, and directly opposed to his own and the 
Massachusetts delegation's holding. Even if there 
had been the semblance of harmony there was no 



i8o John Hancock 

supreme authority vested in the assembly itself. 
It was doubtful whether or not their sense of oppres- 
sion by England was equ^o their affection for her ; 
and independence did not seem to all to be the only 
means of securing their inherited rights. The old 
was better than the untried and dangerous new.^ 
The main business of the majority was to consult 
on possibiHties of consoHdation, since refusal to 
trade with Great Britain was their only means of 
practical protest against its oppressive acts. 
They were merely deputies from twelve separate 
colonies, without authority to legislate for one 
another, without executive powers or officers, 
without credit to borrow money, or right to lay 
a tax, representing the chaotic opinions of four 
races, and hampered by the sentiments or instruc- 
tions of their several constituencies. All that 
could keep centrifugal forces from scattering these 
twelve units was the pressure of royal encroachment 
without and the central attraction of freedom from 
British rule within. Even then indecision and 

1 The colonists' love of their mother country as an element in 
the struggle is well set forth by Bancroft in "History of U.S.," 
VII, 356. It is further illustrated by an address from Con- 
gress to the Lord Mayor and citizens of London in July, 1775 : 
"A cruel war has at length been opened up against us, and 
whilst we purpose to defend ourselves like the descendants of 
Britons, we still have hope that the mediation of wise and good 
citizens, will at length prevail over despotism, and restore harmony 
and peace, on permanent principles, to an oppressed and divided 
empire." (Signed) "John Hancock." — "Journals of Continen- 
tal Congress," 11, 17. 



Second Continental Congress i8i 

wavering prevailed for weeks. Conservatism ruled, 
and what progress was made was like that of cattle 
holding back against the downhill force of gravity ; 
to many seeming a veritable descensus averni to a 
civil purgatory. 

The chairman of this heterogeneous and non- 
commissioned assemblage had to deal fairly and 
courteously with men from all along the coast, 
whatever his own predilections were, and they 
were strong. The hesitation, timorousness, and 
sometimes the Tory bias of here one and there 
another must have ruffled the spirit of a man who, 
to clear out British invaders, could say, ''Burn 
Boston and make John Hancock a pauper." He 
must have chafed inwardly when, after war had 
broken out, men were so blinded by the hope of 
reconciUation that no measure for the prosecution of 
hostiHties could be carried unanimously until a 
second petition to the king had met with rebufif. 
His own delegation even could not urge immediate 
and drastic action because the people of Massa- 
chusetts were regarded by the lower colonies as 
radicals in politics and fanatics in religion.^ Yet 
there was a growing admiration of their conduct 
under the tyranny of the Port Bill and of their 

1 The influences that made for isolation and separatism can be 
understood when it is remembered that Boston was four days from 
New York and seven from Philadelphia in 1765. Captain Derby- 
was only twenty-seven days in carrying the news of the Lexington 
fight to England in the *'Quero" schooner of sixty-two tons burden. 



1 82 John Hancock 

bravery at Lexington and Concord. It was no 
slight responsibility for the President to appoint 
acceptable committees on so important matters as 
the declaration of indej^dence, articles of con- 
federation, and a treaty with France. Whoever 
may have advised, he himself had to bear the inevi- 
table censure from some sources of criticism. 
Wisdom in the chair or behind it must have dic- 
tated the choice of Jefferson, John Adams, Franklin, 
Roger Sherman, and Livingston to formulate the 
Declaration. Jefferson at the head of this com- 
mittee had succeeded Peyton Randolph, being sent 
to rival and supplant Richard Henry Lee, who was 
not agreeable to most of his colleagues from Virginia, 
although a masterly orator and debater and the 
mover of the Declaration. But Jefferson, who sel- 
dom opened his Hps in Congress, held a facile pen ; 
and John Adams, who was next on the committee, 
would not undertake to compose the document, 
having no opinion of his own literary style.^ /Ac- 
cordingly Jefferson drew up the Declaration and 
reported it to the committee, two of whom, Adams 
and Franklin, suggested a few changes, and Congress 
cut out about a quarter of it, including the con- 
demnation of negro slavery, obliterating, as Adams 
thought, the best of it and leaving objectionable 
portions. The committees on articles of confedera- 

» Adams's spirited account of the exchange of civiHties on 
this matter between himself and Jefferson may be found in his 
^'Works," n, 514. 



Second Continental Congress 183 

tion, and on the treaty Vith France were equally- 
well chosen; Samuel Adams being the principal 
member of the first, and Franklin of the second.^ 

There were other committees to appoint, and 
debates to be Hstened to with unrufHed mien; 
for example, on the question of building an American 
fleet, which must have appealed to Hancock, as 
chairman of the committee on naval armament, 
whose ships were rotting at his own wharf, blockaded 
by British men-of-war. Did he keep his counte- 
nance when a member exclaimed, '' It is the maddest 
idea in the world; we should have to mortgage 
the whole Continent to do it. Two swift saiHng 
vessels for gaining intelligence are sufficient." 

Then on Monday, September 25, 1775, there was 
a debate which showed that methods of getting 
rich in war-time were not the invention of contrac- 
tors in the Civil and Spanish wars of later date. 
There was ^'an uneasiness among some of the 
members concerning a contract with Willing and 
Morris for powder by which that firm would make 
a clear profit of twelve thousand pounds at least." 
Livingston said he would never vote to ratify the 
contract. Willing, a member of Congress, said 

* Hancock's famous signature, "so plain that George the Third 
may read it without spectacles," stood alone for a month, and be- 
sides the Secretary's was the only name appended to the Declara- 
tion when copies were sent to the several colonial Assemblies. 
Congress withheld all other signatures as they were dangerous evi- 
dences of treason to the home government, involving peril of the 
gallows. 



184 John Hancock 

he would leave it to his partner to explain. John- 
son said a hundred tons were needed, and Congress 
was to pay the first cost only. Zubly remarked 
sarcastically, '' We are Jpghly favored ; fourteen 
pounds a barrel we are to give, if we get the powder, 

— and the same if we don't get it. Persons enough 
will supply the powder at fifteen pounds and run all 
risks." ^ Dyer observed, *' There are not ten men 
in my colony with so much money as will be made, 
clear, by this contract;" and Ross replied, 
'^What has this to do with the present debate, 
whether Connecticut men are worth so much or no : 
there are no men there whose capital or credit 
is equal to such contracts." 

And John Hancock, bland and quiet as became 
his position as president of Congress, could recall an 
order given three years before by himself in appre- 
hensive times for ''forty half -barrels of Powder 

— let it be good." His capital and credit were 
equal to any army contract, whose profits might 
have reimbursed him for losses at the beginning of 
hostilities. The record shows that he spoke but 
once in these September days. When Lynch 

1 In the general scarcity of arms and ammunition Franklin, in 
jest or soberness, at one time proposed a return to aboriginal bows 
and arrows. Other patterns of this weapon had won famous 
battles from the dawn of history, and could outshoot the colonial 
musket. Even the Stockbridge Indians, hanging around the Cam- 
bridge camp, picked off a few sentries with arrows on their own 
account, as the yeoman ancestors of these sentries had drawn strong 
bows against the French at Crecy and Agincourt. 



Second Continental Congress 185 

inquired whether Captain Dean, whose vessel 
was taken at Block Island, was not carrying supplies 
to the enemy, and Lee thought such conduct 
"detestable parricide," Hancock remarked : "Dean 
belongs to Boston ; he came from the West Indies, 
and was seized here and released ; he loaded with 
flour and went out." He did not spare a Boston 
man when he was suspected of giving aid and com- 
fort to the British. 

And so the debates went on, with acrimony often, 
with appeals for unanimity, concession, and com- 
promise. As Livingston said, "We are between 
hawk and buzzard; we puzzle ourselves between 
the commercial and warlike opposition." The 
battle between these forces had to be fought out 
before the greater war with Great Britain. As for 
Hancock himself, he had decided the conflict 
between his commercial interests and Hberty long 
before he came to the Congress : therefore he must 
have watched with interest if not impatience the 
slow conversion of one deputy after another to the 
side of freedom.^ They were not all merchants 
and importers, very few in fact; but all were 

1 The transition from demanding reform legislation by Parlia- 
ment to insisting upon independence was rapid during the siege 
of Boston in 1775, and was accompanied by a total misapprehen- 
sion of American sentiment by the British ministry. As an ex- 
ample of an Englishman's opinion of colonial devotion to the 
cause of freedom the historian Gibbon's letter to Lord Eliot may 
be cited: "As it is the season for sowing Indian corn, the chief 
subsistence of New Englanders, they must soon disperse." 



1 86 John Hancock 

affected by commerce in a day when agriculture as 
a means of prosperity was lying far inland as an 
undeveloped source of wealth. Foreign trade was 
the chief reliance of th^ seaboard, on which the 
inland counties depended as well as the tide-water 
towns. Of such foreign trade Hancock was the 
principal representative; another reason why he 
should preside over the confederated council. 

There was another issue made paramount for a 
while which must have vexed the soul of an ad- 
vanced patriot Kke Hancock. What proved to be 
a ''measure of imbecility," a second petition to the 
king, clogged for a time every effort of Congress 
toward ultimate independence. A certain contin- 
gent caused motions to be made and tedious de- 
bates for appointing committees to draw up dec- 
larations of the causes, motives, and objects 
of taking up arms ; all to delay the declaration of 
independence. Meantime a New England army 
was waiting before Boston for countenance, en- 
couragement, acceptance, arms, pay, and even 
clothing; while their officers were sending letters 
to the Massachusetts delegation urging in pathetic 
terms the impossibihty of keeping the miHtia 
together without the assistance of Congress. 
Jealousy in this body bristled in every direction; 
a southern party against a northern, a royalist 
against a patriot. The loyaHst was constantly 
demanding one more appeal to the king's sense of 
justice, which some believed was dimmed by the 



Second Continental Congress 187 

unwisdom of favorite counsellors. When Jay's 
motion, seconded by Dickinson, was at length 
passed, ''to present a humble and dutiful petition 
to His Majesty for the promotion of a most desir- 
able reconciHation," Congress weakened the spirit 
of resolution to resist which was making for inde- 
pendence. This gave the king time to collect and 
forward his forces ; and the several colonies in a 
half-hearted way were directed to prepare for a 
doubtful alternative, as it was " very uncertain 
whether their earnest endeavors to accommodate the 
unhappy differences between Great Britain and the 
colonies by conciliatory measures would be success- 
ful." This hesitancy, delay, and parleying could 
not have been otherwise than exasperating to a de- 
termined chairman, who was nevertheless obliged 
to preserve a neutral attitude during the protracted 
discussion. 

There was one of the above jealousies, however, 
which proved too much for Hancock's equanimity. 
From composite motives the southern colonies 
had aspired to furnish a commander-in-chief for 
the northern forces already in the field — possibly 
because the one man recognized by every one as 
equal to the situation was a Virginian. General 
Artemas Ward, who was holding chief command, 
was unfitted by age for the position ; and Joseph 
Warren explained to Samuel Adams that a recent 
resolve of the Provincial Congress to assume the 
direction of the army was to be understood as an 



1 88 John Hancock 

intimation to the Continental Congress to appoint 
a GeneraKssimo. When this proposition was dis- 
cussed in Philadelphia Hancock was among the 
candidates. His knowliige of mihtary affairs was 
limited to tactics sufficient to lead his company 
about the streets as an escort to the provincial 
governors, or in the field exercises of a general 
training day. To suppose that he could fill a 
post of greater authority was an instance of a very 
common delusion, namely, that one is peculiarly 
qualified for something he is least fitted for. Ne 
sutor supra crepidam is a precept that is by no 
means applicable to a cobbler alone in his aspira- 
tions toward a field of higher criticism. Moreover, 
Hancock had already been elevated to as supreme 
a height as was possible to an American citizen 
before the United States could offer him their 
presidency. If the office of commander-in-chief 
had pointed to a mihtary dictatorship beyond a 
crowd of raw recruits it might have been more 
alluring ; but it did not. Nevertheless, the Presi- 
dent of Congress was disappointed that he was 
not nominated for the position, and chagrined that 
his friend and colleague John Adams proposed 
a Virginian, and that Samuel Adams seconded the 
nomination. 

In his own account of the election John Adams 
said that ''Washington was in the minds of so 
many of the stanchest members that nothing could 
be done short of conceding to them. Mr. Hancock 



Second Continental Congress 189 

himself had an ambition to be appointed com- 
mander-in-chief. Whether he thought an election 
a compliment due him, and intended to have the 
honor of decHning it, or whether he would have 
accepted it, I know not. To the compliment he 
had some pretensions, for at that time his exertions, 
sacrifices, and general merits in the cause of his 
country had been incomparably greater than those 
of Colonel Washington. But the delicacy of his 
health, and his entire want of experience in actual 
service, though an excellent militia officer, were 
decisive objections to him in my mind. In can- 
vassing this subject out of doors, I found too that 
even among the delegates of Virginia there were 
difficulties. The apostolical reasonings among 
themselves, which should be greatest, were not less 
energetic among the saints of the ancient dominion 
than they were among us of New England. In sev- 
eral conversations I found more than one cool about 
the appointment of Washington, and particularly 
Mr. Pendleton was very full and clear against it." 
After conferring with Samuel Adams, who said 
nothing, he made a short speech on the distresses 
of the army, the danger of its dissolution, the 
anxiety of the people, and closed with a motion 
for *'the adoption of the army at Cambridge, and 
that a gentleman from Virginia be appointed Com- 
mander-in-Chief, whose sldll, experience as an 
officer, independent fortune, great talents, and 
excellent character would command the approba- 



190 John Hancock 

tion of all America, and unite the exertions of all 
the Colonies better than any other person in 
the Union. Mr. Washington, who happened to 
sit near the door, as s^n as he heard me allude 
to him, from his usual modesty darted into the 
library-room. Mr. Hancock, who was our Presi- 
dent, — which gave me an opportunity to observe 
his countenance while I was speaking on the state 
of Colonies, the army at Cambridge, and the enemy, 
— heard me with visible pleasure; but when I came 
to describe Washington for the commander, I 
never remarked a more sudden and striking change 
of countenance. Mortification and resentment were 
expressed as forcibly as his face could exhibit them. 
Mr. Samuel Adams seconded the motion, and that 
did not soften the President's physiognomy at all.'' 
Whatever feehng Hancock may have betrayed 
when he was surprised by his colleagues' advocacy 
of a Virginian, he had so far recovered the next 
day as to write to Elbridge Gerry that Washington 
was ''a fine man." Austin, in his ^'Life of Gerry, " 
adds that neither Hancock nor General Ward was 
ever afterward very cordial to Washington.^ The 
fondness of Hancock for popularity and consequent 
advancement was his principal weakness, which, 
like vanity, another of his foibles, is so common that 

^"Hancock was known to cherish military ambitions, and he 
viewed the nomination to the command of the army as a reward 
due to himself." — "Correspondence and Journals of Samuel 
Blackley," iii, 275, 



Second Continental Congress 191 

it may be called one of the venial faults, if not a 
motive to exertion in the lack of nobler incitements. 
It certainly tends to promote kindly treatment of 
all who may be useful upon occasion, and is better 
than some other forms of ambition. Yet no one 
would say that Hancock would be likely to make 
all the sacrifices that he did merely for the rewards 
that the patriot party had it in their power to 
confer. Up to the declaration of independence 
and even later those who were looking for political 
preferment would side with the crown, which 
would have made it more profitable for Adams 
and Hancock to abandon a doubtful aUiance than 
to become entangled in it. It would have been 
a royal economy to purchase their neutrahty at 
any price, if it could have been bought. Therefore 
while Hancock was undoubtedly gratified by popular 
adulation and promotion, his love of these tokens of 
respect should not be made to obscure deeper 
and better springs of devotion to a noble cause. 
These were shown, when on the loth of July he 
wrote Washington: ''I must beg the favor that 
you will reserve some berth for me, in such de- 
partment as you may judge proper ; for I am 
determined to act under you, if it be to take a 
firelock and join the ranks as a volunteer." He 
may have been disappointed, as he had reason to 
be chagrined, by the desertion of his colleagues, with 
whatever good reason on their part, but this 
humble offer of service was sincere, unreserved, 



192 J^hn Hancock 

and unconditional. Washington's reply, after eleven 
days, was courteous but not encouraging : — 

"I am particularly to ^^nowledge that part of your 
favor of the loth instant, wnerein you do me the honor of 
determining to join the army under my command. I need 
certainly to make no professions of the pleasure I shall have 
in seeing you. At the same time I have to regret, that so 
little is in my power to offer to Colonel Hancock's merits, 
and worth his acceptance. I shall be happy in every 
opportunity to show the regard and esteem with which 

"I am. Sir, your most obedient and very humble servant." 

A word should be added with regard to the way 
that Washington took his nomination to the posi- 
tion of Commander-in-Chief. After speaking of 
Hancock's momentary discomfiture and Washing- 
ton's surprise, John Adams records that ''It was on 
a succeeding day that he was formally nominated, 
as I remember by Thomas Johnson of Maryland." 
After the first ballot it was found that he was unani- 
mously elected, and on the morning of the next 
day it fell to Hancock as President to communicate 
to him officially and verbally the notice of his 
election. He signified his acceptance in a short 
and appropriate reply. In it his modesty was 
equalled by his generosity in refusing the pay of 
$500 per month which had been voted, and accept- 
ing remuneration for his expenses only. 

On the 19th of June, two months after the battle 
of Lexington and Concord, Hancock signed 
Washington's commission to be General and Com- 
mander-in-Chief of the army of the United Colonies. 



Second Continental Congress 193 

On his way to Cambridge to take charge of the 
troops he wrote Hancock from New York a week 
later that by the advice of many members of 
Congress who judged it necessary that he should 
avail himself of information, he had taken the 
liberty to open a letter in the hands of a messenger 
to Congress, and had learned particulars of the 
battle of Bunker's Hill. In a second letter to the 
President, written as it happened on the same day 
that Hancock was writing to solicit service under 
him, Washington informs Congress of his arrival 
in Cambridge on July 3, after a fatiguing journey 
of seventeen days, " retarded by necessary attention 
to the successive civiHties which accompanied me 
in my whole route." Massachusetts sent two men 
to the State border at Springfield to provide 
honorable escort throughout the hundred miles to 
Cambridge, and to receive bills for entertainment 
at the inns. General Ward gave orders for the 
honorable reception of the Commander-in-Chief, 
*' without, however, any expenditure of powder." 
They had other uses for an article of which they 
were deplorably short, as Washington found upon 
his arrival.^ Ten days later he sent another letter 
to President Hancock in which he proposed 'Ho 
divide the army into three divisions : at the head of 
each will be a general officer"; but there is no 

^ On Sunday, July 2, at 2 p.m. Lt. Baker's "Itinerary of Wash- 
ington," p. 8. An American spy wrote on September 25 : "I heard 
Mr. Hancock Say the very day he came from Congress that we 



194 Jol^i^ Hancock 

intimation that the President of Congress was con- 
templated for one of these positions. On the next 
day, and with the above letter, he forwarded to 
''Colonel Hancock" the^ne already cited, acknowl- 
edging his offer of services, but pohtely decHning 
them. And on the 4th of August, in another 
communication to the President, he is ''much 
honored by the confidence reposed in him of 
appointing the several officers recommended in 
mine of the loth ultimo, and shall endeavor to select 
such persons as are best qualified to fill these im- 
portant posts." By this time Hancock must have 
concluded that his chances of mihtary service and 
promotion were few. He may have consoled 
himself with the reflection that his parHamentary 
gifts were greater than most men's, and that his presi- 
dency of Congress was next in distinction if not equal 
to the Commander-in-Chief's position, since this ad- 
visory body was constantly dictating military affairs. 
While these letters were passing between the two 
a minor tribute was paid Hancock by the Generai 
Assembly of Massachusetts, which on the 19th of 
July had succeeded to the third and last Provincial 
Congress, the presidency of which he had contin- 
ued to hold while in Philadelphia. Elected as 

had more Powder on the Road coming to the Camp than we could 
Expend in one twelve months, this was believed by all, coming 
from Hancock. . . . Our Chiefs say it is Justifiable for such re- 
ports when all is at Stake and the Courage of the Soldiers must be 
kept up high by some means or other." — Belcher's "First Civil 
War," I, 207. 



Second Continental Congress 195 

one of the representatives from Suffolk County, 
he was immediately chosen by the Assembly as one 
of eighteen councillors, his own name heading 
the list. This board was to act as an upper house 
of the Legislature and also as an executive power, 
there being as yet no governor. The duties of this 
body furnished employment for the returned con- 
gressmen, who were members of it, throughout the 
August recess until the 24th of the month. Mean- 
time during the summer and fall President Han- 
cock was writing to colonial legislatures and to army 
officers letters in which no note of his disappoint- 
ment appears, and that were a credit to his patriot- 
ism and sympathy ; as for example one to General 
Schuyler in his time of discouragement, and the 
following official communications, which are a 
contrast to his epistles as a lover.^ 

On the 4th of June, he wrote to ''The Hon'ble 
Assembly of Massachusetts Bay" : — 

"Our affairs are hastening fast to a Crisis; and the ap- 
proaching Campaign will, in all probability, determine 
forever the Fate of America. 

"Such is the unrelenting Spirit which possesses the Ty- 
rant of Britain and his Parliament, that they have left no 
Measure unassayed that had a Tendency to accomphsh 
our Destruction. Not contented with having lined our 
Coasts with Ships of War, to starve us into a surrender 
of our Liberties, to prevent us from being supplied with 
arms and ammunition, they are now about to pour in a Num- 

^ His letters to army officers may be seen in the " St. Clair 
Papers," 2 vols., Cincinnati, 1882. 



196 John Hancock 



ber of foreign Troops, who from their Want of Countries, 
& their FeeHngs of Sympathy which frequently bind to- 
gether the different parts of the same Empire, will be likely 
to do the business of thei|pMasters, without Remorse or 
Compunction." 

After mentioning the danger from Canada and 
the Indians he goes on to say : — 

"In short, on your exertions at this critical Period, to- 
gether with those of other Colonies in the Common Cause, 
the salvation of America evidently depends. Our Colony, 
I am persuaded will not be behindhand. Let us therefore 
exert every Nerve to distinguish ourselves. I entreat you 
to quicken your Preparations, and to stimulate the good 
people of our Government; and there is no Danger, not- 
withstanding the mighty Armament with which we are 
threatened, but they will be lead on to Victory, to Liberty 
and to Happiness." ^ 

The following letter to the Convention of New 
Jersey is of similar import and interest : — 

"Philadelphia, July i6th, 1776. 
" Gentlemen, 

"Since I had the Honour of addressing on the fourth 
of June, at which Time I transmitted sundry Resolves of 
Congress requesting you to call forth your Militia, our 
Affairs have assumed a much more serious Complexion. 
If we turn our attention towards the Northern Department, 
we behold an Army reduced by Sickness, and obliged to flee 
before an Enemy of vastly superior Force. If v/e cast our 
eyes to Head-Quarters, we see the British Army reinforced 
under Lord Howe, and ready to strike a Blow, which may 
be attended with the most fatal Consequences, if not timely 
resisted. The situation of our Country at this Season, calls 

1 "Mass. State Archives," Ms. vol. 195, p. 28. 



Second Continental Congress 197 

therefore for all the Vigour and Wisdom among us; and 
if we do not mean to desert her at this alarming Crisis, it 
is high Time to rouse every Spark of Virtue; and forgetting 
all inferior Considerations, to exert ourselves in a Manner 
becoming Freemen. 

" The Intelligence received this Day from General Wash- 
ington, points out the absolute, the indispensible Necessity 
of sending forward all the Troops that can possibly be col- 
lected, to strengthen both the Army in New York, and that 
on this side of Canada. I do therefore, once more, in the 
Name, and by the Authority of Congress, beseech and re- 
quest you, — as you regard the Liberties of your Country, 
and the Happiness of Posterity; and as you stand engaged 
by the most solemn Ties of Honour to support the Common 
Cause — to strain every Nerve to send forward your Militia, 
agreeably to the former Requisitions of Congress. This is 
a step of such infinite Moment, that, in all Human Probabil- 
ity, it will be the Salvation of America — and as it is the 
only effectual Step, that can possibly be taken at this Junc- 
ture, you will suffer me again most ardently to entreat your 
speedy Compliance with it. 

"In short, the Critical Period has arrived, that will seal 
the Fate, not only of ourselves, but of Posterity. Whether 
they shall arise the generous Heirs of Freedom, or the das- 
tardly Slaves of imperious Task-Masters, it is now in your 
Power to determine. And as Freemen, I am sure, you will 
not hesitate about the Choice. 

"I have the Honour to be 
" Gentlemen 

"Your most obed't 
"very hble Ser't 

"John Hancock Presid't." ^ 

1 From Ms. in the Dreer Collection of the Historical Society of 
Pennsylvania. By the courtesy of the Librarian, Mr. John W. 
Jordan. 



198 John Hancock 

This may serve as an example of his interest in 
the welfare of the army : — 

" PiptADELPHiA, June 21, 1776. 
"I have only Time to observe in general that it is totally 
impossible the American Troops should be on a respectable 
Footing; or that they should render any espetial Services 
to their Country, unless the United Colonies on their Part, 
will take Care to have them well appointed and equipped 
with every Thing necessary for an Army. In this view 
of the Matter, the enclosed Resolve, respecting the Mode 
of providing proper Clothing for our Troops, is most Cer- 
tainly of the greatest importance, and I make no Doubt 
will appear in the same Light to you and claim your im- 
mediate and closest Attention." ^ 

^ "Mass. State Archives," Ms. vol. 195, p. 45. Other letters 
on pp. 39, 41, 52, 55, J2, III, 231. On Oct. 9 he wrote to six colo- 
nies, and to four Dec. 25. 



CHAPTER XIV 

A WEDDING 

Dorothy Quincy did not go back to Boston after 
the Concord and Lexington fight, despite her asser- 
tion that she was not yet under her lover's control. 
He could safely leave the wilful girl to the manage- 
ment of a still more determined woman, who had 
her own method of persuading the younger one 
that it was much better to continue their flight from 
the beleaguered town of Boston. They had not 
been out of Lexington three weeks when the 
maiden's father, whom she wished to visit, had left 
Boston, and from Lancaster, May ii, wrote to his 
son that ''Yr sister Dolly with Mrs. Hancock 
came from Shirley to y'r Bro. Greenleef's and dined 
and proceeded to Worcester, where Col. H. and 
Mr. A. were on their way. This was ten days 
before I got hither, so that I missed seeing them. 
As I hear, she proceded with Mr. H. to Fairfield. 
I don't expect to see her till peaceable times are 
restored." 

The Burrs were an ancient Massachusetts family, 
a branch of which had drifted from the Bay down 
into Fairfield, Connecticut. Thaddeus Burr was 
the occupant of the old homestead for which aunt 



200 John Hancock 

Lydia Hancock headed with Dorothy Quincy in 
charge, and her nephew John conveniently on the 
way. Alone she appears to have been equal to the 
task of personally conaucting the spirited and 
vivacious Dorothy into the staid Connecticut 
household. There Hancock could leave his fiancee, 
with the comforting assurance that she was in safe 
hands where he could find her when his congres- 
sional duties should be sufficiently relaxed to permit 
a temporary absence from Philadelphia. He did not 
wait to reach that city before he wrote the letter of 
May 7 from New York, describing his journey and 
flattering reception.^ A month afterward he wrote 
from Philadelphia a letter by which it appears 
that Dorothy was not so faithful a correspondent 
as he was, and perhaps not so ardent a lover. 

"My Dr Dolly: — I am almost prevailed on to think 
that my letters to my Aunt & you are not read, for I cannot 
obtain a reply, I have ask'd million questions & not an an- 
swer to one, I beg'd you to let me know what things my Aunt 
wanted & you, and many other matters I wanted to know, 
but not one word in answer. I Really Take it extreme un- 
kind, pray my Dr. use not so much Ceremony and Reserved- 
ness, why can't you use freedom in writing, be not afraid 
of me, I want long Letters. I am glad the little things I 
sent you were agreeable. Why did you not write me of the 
top of the Umbrella. I am so sorry it was spoiled, but I 
will send you another by my Express wch will go in a few 
days. How did my Aunt like her gown, & do let me know 
if the Stockings suited her; she had better send a pattern 

* See p. 171. 



A Wedding 201 

shoe and stocking, I warrant I will suit her. The Inclosed 
letter for your Father you will read, & seal and forward him, 
you will observe I mention in it your writing your Sister 
Katy about a few necessaries for Katy Sewall, what you 
think Right let her have & Roy James, & this only between 
you and I; do write your Father I should be glad to hear 
from him, & I beg, my dear Dolly, you will write me often 
& long letters, I will forgive the past if you will mend in the 
future. Do ask my Aunt to make up and send me a Watch 
String, & do you make up another & send me, I wear them 
out fast. I want some little thing of your doing, 

"Remember me to all Friends with you as if Nam'd. 
I am call'd upon and must obey. 

"I have sent you by Doer Church in a paper Box Directed 
to you the following things, for your acceptance & which 
I do insist you wear, if you do not, I shall think the Donor 
is the objection : — 

" 2 pair white silk 4 pair white thread stockings which 

1 think will fit you i pr. Black Satin shoes, i pr. Black 
Calem Do. the other shall be sent when done i very pretty 
light Hat I neat Airy Summer Cloak (I ask Doer. Church) 

2 caps I Fann. 

"I wish these may please you, I shall be gratified if they 
do, pray write me, I will attend to all your Commands. 

"Adieu my Dr Girl, and believe me with great Esteem 
& Affection 

"Yours without Reserve 

"John Hancock."* 
"Remember me to Katy Brackett." 

It is too evident that despite the lover's entreaties, 
supplemented by hosiery, hat, and cloak, Dorothy 
Quincy was so sadly in arrears in the matter of 
letter-writing that out of regard to her loyalty 

* "New England Magazine," Old Series, xn, 532. 



202 John Hancock 

to her prospective husband some search ought to 
be made for a woman's reason which will explain 
such neglect, in part at least. 

In the house where slie was staying was born on 
November 6, 1756, a son to Aaron Burr and Esther 
his wife, who was a daughter of Reverend Jonathan 
Edwards, the most distinguished theologian and 
terrific preacher of his generation ; and for a short 
period before his death President of Princeton 
College. Young Aaron Burr inherited intellectual 
gifts that were a credit to his illustrious ancestry, 
and possessed moreover a personal fascination 
equalled only by his grandfather's fearful attrac- 
tion when delivering one of his lurid sermons. 
For a while the grandson pursued the study of 
divinity, but a revolt from Calvinistic dogmatism 
ended in legal studies and practice. He had been 
three years out of college, a youth of nineteen, 
when he appeared one summer day at the old 
homestead, both of his parents having died in his 
childhood. Much history has descended with 
his name, but it is a uniform tradition that, — 
what is of chief consequence here, — his attrac- 
tions were well-nigh irresistible by women. An 
equally well-attested tradition declares that Doro- 
thy Quincy was by no means insensible to his 
charms of appearance and conversation. 

Aunt Lydia soon became alarmed for the pros- 
pects of her nephew-congressman by the daily 
presence in the house of this winsome and brilliant 



A Wedding 203 

student of theology and law, whose enchantments 
may have been past her matronly and aged under- 
standing — or they may not, but were so evident 
that some drastic poHcy became imperative for 
the safe-keeping of her charge. Plainly, she did 
not disclose the situation to John, since amid all 
his complaints and surmisings in such letters as 
have survived there is no hint of a rival's advan- 
tageous propinquity in the household where 
Dorothy was living. It is not certain how long 
she was exposed to the hypnotic influences of a 
young man ten years her junior ; but it is on rec- 
ord that during the recess of Congress, from 
August I to September 5, its president claimed the 
willing or reluctant betrothed as his own, and they 
were married on the 28th day of August, 17 75, as 
was duly chronicled in the ''New York Gazette" 
of September 4 : — 

"This evening was married at the seat of Thaddeus Burr, 
Esq., at Fairfield Conn., by the Reverend Mr. Eliot, the 
Hon.' John Hancock Esq., President of the Continental 
Congress, to Miss Dorothy Quincy, daughter of Edmund 
Quincy Esq. of Boston. Florus informs us that 'in the 
second Punic war, when Hannibal besieged Rome and was 
very near making himself master of it, a field upon which 
part of his army lay, was offered for sale, and was immedi- 
ately purchased by a Roman, in a strong assurance that the 
Roman valor and courage would soon raise the siege.' 
Equal to the conduct of that illustrious citizen was the 
marriage of the Honorable John Hancock Esq., who, with 
his amiable lady has paid as great a compliment to American 
valor, and discovered equal patriotism, by marrying now 



204 John Hancock 

while all the colonies are as much convulsed as Rome when 
Hannibal was at her gates." ^ 

No doubt Hancock aj^reciated the compliment 
to his confidence in American valor by some news- 
paper Florus, and at the same time he may also 
have had his own apprehensions about the wisdom 
of a Fabian policy in delaying his marriage much 
longer, — in which Aunt Lydia was sure to agree 
with him. Dolly, too, might have had her com- 
pensations in the fact that she had wedded a man of 
wealth and exalted position, with the accessories 
of good looks, manners, and breeding. Settled 
in a boarding-house in Philadelphia with other 
people from Massachusetts, she won the reputation 
of a devoted wife.^ John Adams, writing to his 
wife on November 4, says : — 

"Two pair of colors belonging to the Seventh Regiment, 
were brought here last night from Chambly, and hung up 
in Mrs. Hancock's chamber with great splendor and elegance. 
The lady sends her compliments and good wishes. Among 
a hundred men, almost, at this house, she lives and behaves 

* Another contemporary sheet had his portrait as a frontispiece ; 
and John Eliot is moved to write to Jeremy Belknap : "It is said 
that the President of our Continental Congress is a person of sur- 
passing eloquence, a fine writer, argumentative, cool, as may be 
seen in the addresses of Congress, all which were penned by him ; 
that he hath lately married one of the most accomplished ladies on 
the Continent, who has bro't him a great addition to his paternal 
fortune." — "Belknap Papers," iv, 125. An instance of the un- 
trustworthiness of some examples of contemporary report. 

2 The first weeks at Philadelphia were occupied in packing up 
oflBcers' commissions and trimming the rough edges of new bills 
of credit. — "Magazine of American History," June, 1888, 



A Wedding 205 

with modest decency, dignity and discretion, I assure you. 
Her behavior is easy and genteel. She avoids talking upon 
politics. In large and mixed companies she is totally silent, 
as a lady ought to be. But whether her eyes are so pene- 
trating, and her attention so quick to the words, looks ges- 
tures sentiments &c of the company as yours would be, 
saucy as you are in this way, I won't say." 

Probably Abigail Adams understood her hus- 
band well enough to believe that this was an in- 
tended compliment to herself, and that he was 
immune against other attractions than her own. 

By spring the Hancocks took a house from which 
the President of Congress sent an invitation to the 
Commander-in-Chief on the i6th of May, 1776, 
to make his home with them on the occasion of 
his visit to Philadelphia to consult with Congress 
about the ensuing campaign, where he was to be 
joined by Mrs. Washington: — 

"I reside in an airy open part of the city, in Arch street 
and Fourth street. Your favor of the 20th inst. I received 
this morning and cannot help expressing the great pleasure 
it would afford Mrs. Hancock and myself to have the happi- 
ness of accommodating you during your stay in this city. As 
the house I live in is large and roomy, it will be entirely in 
Your power to live in that manner you should wish. Mrs. 
Washington will be as retired as she pleases, while under 
inoculation, and Mrs. Hancock will esteem it an honour 
to have Mrs. Washington inoculated in her house; and as 
I am informed Mr. Randolph has not any lady about his 
house to take the necessary care of Mrs. Washington, I flatter 
myself she will be as well attended in my family. 

"In short, sir, I must take the freedom to repeat my wish, 



2o6 John Hancock 

that You will be pleased to condescend to dwell under my 
roof. I assure you, sir, I will do all in my power to render 
your stay agreeable, and m.y house shall be entirely at your 
disposal. I must, however, ^nJDmit this to your determina- 
tion and only add that you will peculiarly gratify Mrs. H. 
and myself, in affording me an opportunity of convincing 
of this truth, that I am, v/ith every sentiment of regard for 
you, and your connections, and with much esteem, dear sir, 
"Your faithful and most obedient humble servant, 

"John Hancock." 

In his reply of May 20 to the ofhcial letter 
which accompanied this invitation Washington 
expressed his gratitude to Congress "for their 
kind attention to the means which they think may 
be conducive to my health, and with particular 
thanks to you for the poHteness of your invitation 
to your house, I conclude, dear sir. Your most 
obedient, etc." There is no indication that he 
accepted Hancock's offer of hospitality. Possibly 
the Aon-acceptance was the cause of the following 
note from the President of Congress soon after 
the arrival of Washington in Philadelphia : — 

"I am extremely sorry it is not in my power to wait on 
you in person, to execute the commands of Congress. But 
being deprived of that pleasure by a severe fit of the gout, 
I am under the necessity of taking this method to acquaint 
you, that the Congress have directed me in their name to 
make the thanks of that body to you, for the unremitted at- 
tention you have paid to your important trust, and in par- 
ticular for the assistance they have derived from your mili- 
tary knowledge and experience, in adopting the best plans 
for the defence of the United Colonies." 



A Wedding loj 

In this note also there is evidence that Wash- 
ington did not accept Hancock's proffered hos- 
pitality. Nor was this the only occasion on which 
the convenient gout served the latter's sense of 
what was due him. He had been profuse in his 
cordial tender of entertainment to one who occu- 
pied a position which he had coveted : the recogni- 
tion of his offer was courteous but almost curt in 
response to the somewhat effusive but evidently 
genuine initiative of Hancock. At this distance 
a sudden recurrence of his malady seems excus- 
able, if not natural. 

On the 24th of August it became the duty of 
the President of Congress to write the Comman- 
der-in-Chief in commendation of his action in the 
matter of Lord Drummond's proposal of a plan of 
reconciliation between Great Britain and the colo- 
nies, which Washington had promptly declined 
to receive from a man who was violating his parole, 
as he considered. 

"Sir, 

"The late conduct of Lord Dnimmond is as extraordinary, 
as his motives are dark and mysterious. To judge the most 
favorably of his intentions, it should seem, that an over- 
weening vanity has betrayed him into a criminal breach 
of honor. But whether his views were upright, or intended 
only to mislead and deceive, cannot at present be a matter 
of any importance. In the meantime I have the pleasure 
to acquaint you, that Congress highly approve the manner 
in which you have checked the officious and intemperate 
zeal of his Lordship. Whether his designs were hostile or 



2o8 John Hancock 

friendly, he equally merited the reproof you gave him, and 
I hope for the future he will be convinced, that it is highly 
imprudent to attract the attention of the public to a charac- 
ter, which will only pass ^^hout censure when it passes 
without notice. ... I have the honor to be, etc. 

"John Hancock." ^ 

It may be admitted that Hancock succeeded 
in separating his official duty from his personal 
inclinations. He could not fail to have the Com- 
mander-in-Chief often in his thoughts, as that 
dignitary was frequently the subject of discussion 
in Congress. In communicating the sentiments 
of that body he allowed no note of personal feeling 
to color the expression of its opinions or will. 
If in the privacy of his fireside the attitude of 
General Washington was sometimes discussed, 
the two most concerned were not Ukely to let their 
neighbors have the opportunity to repeat anything 
to the detriment of the man who was having abuse 
enough from the envious and ambitious, from pre- 
tended friends and open enemies. 

1 The correspondence on the Lord Drummond proposition will 
be found in Sparks' edition of "Washington's Writings," iii, 
525. Also some of the letters in this chapter under their dates. 
The editor made them conform to modern standards of spelling 
and punctuation. 

"The letters of John Hancock are not in the collection of Let- 
ters of the Presidents of Congress." — "Calendar of the Corre- 
spondence of George Washington with the Continental Con- 
gress," I, 7. Many of them are in the keeping of the historical 
societies of Pennsylvania, and Massachusetts, in the Archives of 
the latter state, and in private hands. If collected they would 
furnish illuminating comment on the Revolutionary period. 



CHAPTER XV 



PRESIDENT OF CONGRESS 



Coincident with the declaration of indepen- 
dence a movement was started for the confederation 
of the colonies. To accompUsh even a loose con- 
nection between separate and jarring states was 
a slower matter than to get them to declare them- 
selves sundered from Great Britain.^ Each colony 
was glad of the company of the others in the 
chorus of protest and assertion, but it meant that 
the freedom was for each one personally and in- 
dividually as a member of a group. As a group, 
united by nothing stronger than common consent, 
there was little or no authority over any partic- 
ular member of it. They all had just thrown off 
the control of one king : they were in no haste to 
have another, whether congress or president. At 
the same time, the weakness and the danger of 
disunion to these separate ''States," as they be- 
gan to call themselves, was growing more apparent 
every day ; but it was long before needful conces- 

1 As against these plans of confederation, alternative proposi- 
tions for the continuance of union with Great Britain were fre- 
quently brought forward, of which Galloway's was an example. 
It is to be seen in the "Journal of Continental Congress," n, 44. 



2IO John Hancock 

sions to the idea of federation could be obtained, 
and longer still before it was cordially accepted. 
States rights, chartered^inherent, and immanent, 
were the materials out of which the fabric of a 
nation was to be built, and the incongruous stones 
and timbers were not to be assembled in a day; 
nor have their distinctive peculiarities been en- 
tirely lost after a century and a third. It is some- 
times forgotten how much longer the thought of 
separatism and individualism prevailed through- 
out the colonial period than has that of union in 
the national period. Thirty- three years are yet to 
pass before the last period will equal the first ; but 
it would take more than one decade to eradicate the 
political theories and habits to which the nation has 
become accustomed in one hundred and tliirty-six 
years. The same was truer of a people whose no- 
tions of local rights had been undisturbed for one 
hundred and sixty-nine years from the first per- 
manent settlement in Virginia in 1607, or for 
one hundred and fifty-six years in Massachusetts, 
with corresponding periods in other colonies. 

To this new plan of confederation Congress de- 
voted its attention in 1777 ; with the greater cour- 
age because the clouds over the army were clearing 
and the hopes of the people were reviving. Some, 
to be sure, saw in a final victory freedom chiefly 
for their own commonwealth to pursue its sec- 
tional schemes, recalling the evil proverb for the 
fate of the hindmost. In the main, however, Con- 



President of Congress 211 

gress had been a school for mutual instruction, 
opening bhnd eyes to unsuspected or unadmitted 
excellencies in others; teaching also the necessity 
of daily yielding something to the common welfare 
and to the opinion of the greater number. Those 
who had been learners in this school of political 
science went home to teach the people, and to 
turn public opinion out of the channels in which it 
had run for a century and a half ; since back to the 
people the question of confederation, like that of 
independence, was to be referred for ultimate 
decision. Some of the principalities had already 
been framing new governments to fit the new con- 
ditions of entire self-government; now they were 
to be asked what they were willing to contribute 
toward the unity of all. It was a new proposition ; 
regarded with suspicion and approached with re- 
luctance. It was not until they realized that their 
separation from Great Britain and their isolation 
from each other debarred them from a place among 
the nations that the colonies saw the necessity of 
some sort of alliance among themselves. 

In addition to their jealousy of one another the 
States grew more suspicious of Congress as the 
war elicited acts which were interpreted as looking 
toward imperialism, of which the direction of cam- 
paigns, and a standing committee of five to hear 
appeals in prize cases were instances. Some States 
insisted on having a voice in privateering limita- 
tions, and all of them were ready to send embarrass- 



212 John Hancock 

ing instructions to their deputies at every turn 
in affairs. All this diversity of opinion in Congress, 
and considerable officiou^ignorance outside, made 
Hancock's presidency more trying than that of 
later chairmen because grounds of difference were 
more radical than they now are after the existence 
of the nation under constitutional legislation for 
a century and a third. ^ 

A further annoyance to the President of Congress 
arose from its growing inefficiency through with- 
drawal of its ablest members into missions abroad 
or governorships in their respective States. This 
depletion paralleled the short terms of service in 
the army, which would have ruined the American 
cause by New Year's day of 1777 if Wasliington's 
crossing the Delaware on Christmas night and the 
battle of Trenton the next day had not turned the 
tide of affairs at its lowest ebb, and kept home- 
sick and heartsick troops from abandoning the 
contest. Congressmen went home for a different 
reason, especially when State elections were ap- 
proaching, or sailed for foreign parts where their 
services might be needed. In both cases their 
experience was missed in Congress, and their ab- 
sence was not made good by new members. 
Twelve out of the thirteen who drew up the plan 
of confederation had left when the debate on it 

1 "In the midst of all this complicated committee system was the 
President of Congress himself, the most overworked of them all." 
— Van Tyne, "American Revolution," p. 190. 



President of Congress 213 

began; and even Samuel Adams, the thirteenth, 
was absent when the articles were adopted. Newly 
appointed delegates brought their provincial antip- 
athies with them, which they often mistook for 
a patriotism that their predecessors had lost in the 
abrasions of Congress and Philadelphia hospitality, 
but which many of the earlier ones had by no means 
thrown off. Benjamin Harrison compared Yan- 
kees in Congress to the Grand Turk in his domin- 
ion, and Rutledge dreaded their overruling in- 
fluence in council : to which John Adams retorted : 
''The dons, the bashaws, the grandees, the sa- 
chems, the nabobs, call them by what name you 
please, sigh, groan, fret, and sometimes stamp and 
foam and curse, but all in vain." 

This exchange of amenities demanded a pre- 
siding officer of some tact and great urbanity to 
keep the fathers of the republic from running into 
parKamentary riot. Small States feared the large, 
whose territory stretched to the Pacific. The 
Wyoming valley was a bone between Connecticut 
and Pennsylvania; the Green Mountain pastures 
another between New York and New Hampshire; 
and Vermont, asking admittance as an indepen- 
dent State, made New York and New England 
bristle and growl. Lafayette thought that parties 
in Congress hated one another as much as they 
hated the enemy; and Washington wrote that 
*' Congress is rent by Party; business of personal 
concernment withdrawing attention from matters 



214 John Hancock 

of great national moment." Sometimes not more 
than twelve members were in attendance. 

Hancock was a man of too large commercial 
and political experience to look down upon the 
House from his chair in his judicial capacity and 
not understand the causes of bickering and dis- 
trust. If the original members could have kept 
together there would have been better hope of 
eventual harmony through acquaintance and dis- 
cussion. Instead, each session brought new men 
to thresh over the chaff that had been sufficiently 
pounded before their arrival. Nothing could be 
more wearying to a chairman or require more 
patience. Then there were questions about pro- 
portionate influence, privilege, and representation 
in the new government. Deputies had to contend 
for these upon the demand of their constituencies ; 
how many votes each State should have, and what 
share of funds it should contribute. Franklin 
doubted whether the whale would swallow Jonah 
or the reverse. Finally it was decided to vote by 
States and to contribute according to land values. 
Trimming the States that reached to the Mississippi 
and the "South Sea" was a longer task which 
delayed the final adoption of the Articles of Con- 
federation. Three months were consumed in get- 
ting its terms agreed upon by Congress amidst no 
end of amendment and revision, to be sent out to 
the States in its final form on the 17th of Novem- 
ber, 1777, the day of Burgoyne's surrender. This 



President of Congress 215 

disastrous blow to the enemy hastened the adop- 
tion of the Articles of Confederation by the States, 
and gave new hopes to Americans here and to their 
friends abroad, especially in France, which was 
waiting to send more freely and openly the aid 
that had been promised, and furnished covertly 
but generously by individuals. 

Hancock began to feel the strain of his difficult 
position in the wrangling over Articles of Confed- 
eration, and in the increasing labors consequent 
upon movements of the army and the danger of 
the enemy's occupying the city.^ He was also 
contending with physical infirmities which the 
cHmate of Philadelphia did not help to lessen, 
nor his unsatisfactory mode of life in lodgings 
which he had taken after the return of Congress 
from Baltimore. He had left Mrs. Hancock in 
that city with an infant daughter, named Lydia 
Henchman for the aunt. The following letter 
gives a glimpse of his lonely life. 

"PmLADELPHiA loth Maich 1777 
"My Dear Dear Dolly: My detention at the Ferry 
& the badness of the Roads prevented my arriving here 
untill Friday Evening. 

"I put my things into Mr. Williams' house, and went 
in pursuit of Lodgings. Neither Mrs. Yard nor Lucy could 
accommodate me. I then went to Smith's and borrowed 
two Blankets & returned to my own house; soon after which 
Mrs. Smith sent me up a very handsome supper, with a 

^ In addition to duties of the presiding officer there were com- 
mittee labors, as of that on fitting out a naval armament. ''Journal 
of Continental Congress," iii, 425. 



2i6 John Hancock 

Table cloth, Knives & forks, plates, salt, a print of Butter, 
Tea, double refined Sugar, a Bowl of Cream, a Loaf of Bread 
&c &c here I have remain'd and shall do so waiting your 
arrival. Indeed Mrs. SmitL^blig'd me much. I however 
lead a doleful lonesome life. Tho on Saturday I dined at 
Dr. Shippins'. He desires his Regds. he is as lonesome as I. 
On Saturday I sat down to dinner at the httle table with 
Folger on a piece of Roast Beef with Potatoes. We drank 
your health with all our Baltimore friends. Last night Miss 
Lucy came to see me, & this morning while I was at Break- 
fast on Tea with a pewter tea-spoon, Mrs. Hard came in. 
She could not stay to Breakfast with me. I spend my even- 
ings at home, snuff my candles with a pair of scissors, which 
Lucy seeing, sent me a pair of snuffers & dipping gravy 
out of the Dish with my pewter tea spoon, she sent me a 
large silver spoon and two silver tea spoons — that I am 
now quite rich. 

"I shall make out as well as I can, but I assure you, my 
Dear Soul I long to have you here & I know you will be as 
expeditious as you can. When I part from you again it 
must be a very extraordinary occasion. I have sent every- 
where to get a gold or silver rattle for the child with a coral 
to send but cannot get one. I will have one if possible on 
yr coming. I have sent a sash for her & two little papers 
of pins for you. If you do not want them you can give 
them away. 

" However unsettled things may be I could not help send- 
ing for you as I cannot live in this way. We have an abun- 
dance of Hes. The current report is that General Howe 
is bent on coming here, another report is that the Mercht's 
at New York are packing their goods & putting them on 
board ships & that the troops are going away, neither of 
which do I believe. We must, however, take our chances, 
this you may depend on, that you will be ever the object 
of my utmost care & attention. 



President of Congress 217 

" I have been exceedingly busy, since I have been here, 
tho' have not yet made a Congress, are waiting for the South 
CaroHna gentleman. If Capt. Hammond is arrived with 
any things from Boston, You will have them put in the 
Waggons and brought here. If she should not be arriv'd 
leave the Receipt with Mr. S. Purviance & desire him to 
receive the things and send them to me. The inclosed 
Letter give to Mr. Newhouse, one of the Waggoners, Send 
for him & let him know when you will be ready. I hope you 
will be able to pack up all your things quickly & have them 
on the way & that you will soon follow, be careful in packing 
and do not leave anything behind. Let Harry see that 
everything is safely stored in the waggons. I send Mr. 
McCloskey, he will be very useful. I am confident Mr. & 
Mrs. Hilligas will assist you, pray my best Regds. to them. 
I have not had time to go to their house but intend it today 
& shall write Mr. HiUigas by the Post. Young Mr. Hillagas 
got here on Saturday, he is well, he delivered me your letter 
& one from his father. I was exceeding glad to hear from 
you and hope soon to receive another Letter. I know you 
will set off as soon as You can. endeavor to make good 
stages. You may easily lodge at Mr. Steles' at Bush the 
first night. It is a good house. However I must leave 
those matters to you as the Road must in great measure 
determine your Stages. I do not imagine there is any danger 
of small-pox on the Road. Wilmington is the most dan- 
gerous, but go on to Chester. I want to get somebody 
cleaver to accompany you. I hope to send one to you, 
but if I should not be able, you must make out as well as 

you can." 

"11 March. 

"I will write by the Post tomorrow. I can't add as I am 

now call'd on. I hope no accident will happen. Inclosed 

you have a few memo, as to pack'g &c which I submit to 

your perusal. 



2i8 John Hancock 

"My best regds to Mr & mrs. Purviance' Capt Nicholson 
& Lady, Mr. Luce & family & indeed all friends. My love 
to Miss Katy, and tell her to Ransack the house & leave 
nothing behind. The Wagapners will attend you at all 
times. Remember me to all the family. May every bless- 
ing of an Indulgent providence attend you. I most sin- 
cerely wish you a good journey & hope I shall soon, very soon, 
have the happiness of seeing you with the utmost affection 
and Love. My Dear Dolly, 

"I am yours forever 

"John Hancock." 

"Doctor Bond call'd on me, Desir'd his complements. 
He will inoculate the child as soon as it comes. 

"Mrs. Washington got here on Saturday. I went to see 
her. She told me she Drank tea with you. 

"Let Harry take the Continental Horse, Saddle & Bridle, 
that I left at Mr. Purviance's & tell Mr. Purviance to charge 
his keeping in his public credit. If Capt Hardy returns 
the Horse I lent him with the Saddle & Bridle he must also 
come. Get the heavy waggon off as soon as you can, that 
they may be here as early as possible as we shall much want 
the things after you get here. I have got your bundle safe 
with the Petticoat, Table Cloth, I have not sent it as I 
thought you would not want it." * 



In the evening of the day on which he finished 
this letter he wrote another of similar length and 
substance apparently to serve as a diversion in his 
solitude. It must have taken him a good part of 
the night to write it. 



1 "Old Boston Days and Ways," p. 237, from letter formerly 
in the possession of the late Mrs. William Wales. 



President of Congress 219 

"PmLADELPiiiA, II March 1777 

"g o'clock Evening 
"My Dearest Dolly: No Congress today, and I have 
been busily employ'd as you can conceive; quite lonesome 
& in a domestick situation that ought to be relieved as 
speedily as possible, this Relief depends upon you, and the 
greater Dispatch you make & the Sooner you arrive here, 
the more speedy will be my relief. I dispatched Harry, 
McClosky and Dennis this morning with Horses & a Waggon 
as winged Messengers to bring you along. God grant you 
a speedy and safe Journey to me. Mr. Pluckrose the Bearer 
of this going for Mrs. Morris, I have engaged him to proceed 
on to Baltimore to deliver, you this; I wrote you this morn- 
ing to brmg all the things that came from Boston to this 
place but should they be landed before you leave Baltimore, 
I could wish you would present One Quintal of the Salt 
Fish & three or four Loaves of the Sugar to Mr. Sam'l Pur- 
viance, or in case they should not be landed, leave directions 
to have these articles taken out and presented to Mr. P 
with our Compliments. I forget what other things there are 
but if you choose to make presents of any of them, I pray 
you to do it. If in the prosecution of your Journey you 
can avoid lodging at the head of Elk, I wish you would 
it is not so good as the other houses, but this must depend 
on Circumstances; I wish you to make yr journey as agree- 
able as possible. Should any Gentlemen & Ladies accom- 
pany you out of Town do send McClosky forward to order 
a handsome Dinner and I beg you to pay every Expence, 
order McClosky to direct the Landlord not to Receive a 
single farthing from any one but by your Direction & order 
a genteel Dinner; plenty — 

"If Mr. Thomson cannot be ready with his Waggons 
as soon as you are, do not wait, but part of the Guard with 
an Officer must attend yours, and part be left to guard his. 
I only wish to have you here, and if you cannot readily 



220 John Hancock 

attend to the Return of the things borrowed of Mr. Dugan, 
leave them in the Care of some trusty person to deHver 
them and pay him for his trouble. Am I not to have another 
letter from you ? Surely I ^st. I shall send off Mr. Rush 
or Tailor to-morrow or next day to meet you. I wish I 
could do better for you but we must Ruff it; I am so har- 
rassed with applications, & have been sending off Expresses 
to Call all the Members here, that I have as much as I can 
Turn my hands to ; I don't get down to dinner, Catch a Bit, 
I write, & then at it again [the writing is here illegible] . . . 
if it promotes the cause I am happy, do beg Mr. Hillegas^ 
to send some money by my Waggons, or I shall be worn 
out with appHcations, pray him to take pity on me, I have 
lent my own stock already to stop some mouths. 

"My respects to Mr. & Mrs. Hillegas, they must excuse 
my not writing now, I have not seen their son since he de- 
liver'd me your Letter, I asked him to Call, but I suppose 
he is so engaged with his Connection he has not had time, 
I could wish to have it in my Power to do him any Service 
for the great regard I bear to his worthy Parents, I assure 
you I really love them, I wish they were Coming with you, 
I could then have a Family where I could with pleasure go, 
& ask them a hundred Questions, & take a thousand Liberties 
with them, that I cannot do in any Family now here, I shall 
Regret their absence, but I am Determin'd to make a point 
of having them up, for I cannot attend to the applications 
that are made to me in consequence of the Treassurer's ab- 
sence ; he must come. He shall come if I have any influence. 

"Lucy & Nancy call'd on me, I was busy over papers; 
we drank a glass together to our Baltimore Friends, I waited 
on them home, & return'd to my Cottage; Jo comes in with 
a plate of minc'd Veal, that I must stop, I shall take the 
plate in one hand, the knife in the other, without cloath, 
or any Comfort, & Eat a little & then to writing, for I have 

* Michael Hillegas was one of the two joint treasurers of the 
United States, holding the office until 1789. 



President of Congress 221 

not room on the Table to put a plate, I am up to the eyes 
in papers. Adieu for the present. 

" The Inclosed Letter Lucy just sent me for you. — 
Supper is over, no ReHsh, nor shall I have till I have you 
here, & I wish Mr. & Mrs. Hilligas to join us at Supper on 
Tuesday Evening when I shall Expect you. I shall have 
Fires made & everything ready for your Reception, tho' 
I dont mean to hurry you beyond measure, do as you 
like, don't fatigue yourself in Travelling too fast. I keep 
Josh on trial, he promises Reformation, he knows fully his 
fate. My best Regards to Mr. & Mrs. Purviance, to Mr. 
Lay & Family, Capt Nicholson & wife, Mr. Stewart & wife & 
all Friends. Tell Mr. Purviance & Capt. Nicholson I shall 
write them fully in a day or two and Determine all matters 
to their satisfaction, I am so worried that I cannot even 
steal time to write them now. Tell Mr. Purviance I Rec'd 
his Letter by Post and will forward the Letters he Inclosed 
me to Boston & Newbury to-morrow. Pray let Dr. Wisen- 
hall know that I Re'd his Letter, & am much obliged for 
his attention to the Child and that I will do everything 
in my power for the Gentleman who he mentions in his 
Letter, you will Recompense him for calling to see the Child. 

"Remember me to all the Family. If Nancy inchnes 
to come in the Waggon and you like it she may Come, do 
as you like in every instance my love to Miss Katy, tell her 
if anything is left behind, I shall have at her, for she Ran- 
sack 'd when we left Philadelphia & she must do the same 
now — 

"The Opinion of some seems to be that the Troops will 
leave New York, where bound none yet know; one thing 
I know that they can't at present come here, perhaps they 
are going to Boston or up North River. Time will discover. 
Never fear, we shall get the day finally with the smiles of 
heaven. 

"Do Take precious care of our dear little Lydia. 



222 John Hancock 



"Adieu. I long to see you. Take Care of Yourself. I 
am, 

"my Dear Girl 
^ "Yours most affectionately 
"John Hancock. 
"Do let Harry Buy & bring i or 2 Bushells of Parsnips 
Bring all the wine, none to be got here." ^ 

Such was the plight of the official who repre- 
sented the presidency in the inchoate and formative 
period of transition from colonial to national life 
in America. The externals of Congress were 
primitive enough; there was no Supreme Court, 
and no imitation of the Court of St. James, of 
which Hancock had a glimpse sixteen years before. 
Now, as President of Congress he was living with 
a servant or two in a cottage, his state papers, his 
correspondence, and his meals a good deal mixed 
on a single table. His head seems to be in a simi- 
lar condition, giving his long epistles the saltatory 
style of a writer whose mind is distracted by a 
diversity of cares, to which is added the manner of 
a husband and father who hurries his family's 
home-coming, with now and then a suspicion that 
haste may be inconvenient to them. He writes 
everything as it comes into his head, forgetting 
sometimes what he has already mentioned. A 
vivid imagination is not needed to picture Mrs. 
Hancock reading these successive letters. Per- 
haps their length and frequency discouraged her 
attempts to answer them. Evidently she waited 

* "New England Magazine," Old Series, xii, p. 535. 



President of Congress 223 

to reply in person when she should have accom- 
plished the miles from Baltimore to Philadelphia. 
Her stay there, however, was short. The heat of 
the city made it desirable to take herself and the 
child into Massachusetts, leaving her husband to 
fare as he might during the remainder of the ses- 
sion. From his letters it is plain that she did not 
improve in her habits of correspondence. From 
*'York Town, October 18, 1777," he wrote : — 

"My Dear Dolly: I am now at this Date & not a line 
from you. Not a single word have I heard from you since 
your letter by Dodd, immediately upon your arrival at 
Worcester, which you may judge afifects me not a little, but I 
must submit & will only say that I expected oftener to have 
been the object of your attention. 

"This is my sixth letter to you. The former ones I hope 
you have Rec'd, by the Completion of those Letters you 
will I dare say be apprehensive that my stay here was 
nearly Determined for the winter & that I had thoughts 
of soliciting your Return to me. My thoughts on that 
subject were for a season serious, but various reasons have 
occurred to induce me to alter my Resolutions, and I am 
now to inform you that I have come to a fixed Determination 
to Return to Boston for a short time & I have notified Con- 
gress in form of my Intentions. You will therefore please 
immediately on Receipt of this tell Mr. Spriggs to prepare 
the light Carriage and Four Horses & himself to be ready 
to proceed on to Hartford or Fairfield, as I shall hereafter 
direct to meet me on the Road. If my old Black Horses are 
not able to perform the journey he must hire two. The 
particular Time of my setting out & when (I would have 
Spriggs come forward) you shall know by Dodd, the Ex- 
press who I shall Dispatch tomorrow morning. My present 



224 John Hancock 

Intention is to leave Congress in eight days, but more par- 
ticulars in my next. I shall hope & must desire that you 
will take a Seat in the carriage & meet me on the Road, 
which will much advanta^your health, & you may be 
assured will be highly satisfactory to me, & I have desired 
Mr. Bant to accompany you in the carriage & when we meet 
he can take my sulkey and I return with you in the carriage 
to town. Mr. Bant must hire or borrow a Servant to at- 
tend you on Horse back as Harry & Ned are both with me 
& Joe is not suitable. My dear I hope your health will ad- 
mit of your coming with Mr. Bant. I long to see you. I 
shall close all my Business in three Days & indeed have 
already nearly finished, & when once I set out shall travel 
with great speed. Nothing shall prevent my seeing you 
soon with the leave of providence; but a prevention of 
passing the North River I shall push hard to get over, even 
if I go as far as Albany. I need not tell you there will 
be no occasion of you writing me after the receipt of this. 
My best wishes attend you for every good. I have much 
to say, which I leave to a Cheerful Evening with you in 
person. 

" God Bless you my Dear Dolly 
"lam 

"Yours most affectionately 

"John Hancock." » 

The reader will discern a faintly imperative 
mood in this letter, owing perhaps to the neglect 
with which the writer thinks he has been treated, 
and not without some reason for his opinion. How- 
ever, he is not so cast down that he cannot write 
once more, as will appear later. 

Within the week preceding the date of this letter 

1 " N. E. Historical and Genealogical Register," xii, io6. 



President of Congress 225 

Hancock had asked Congress for two months' leave 
of absence in the following communication : — 

"Gentlemen: Friday last completed two years & j&ve 
months since you did me the honor of electing me to fill 
this chair. As I could never flatter myself your choice 
proceeded from any idea of my abilities, but rather from 
a partial opinion of my attachment to the Hberties of America, 
I felt myself under the strongest obligations to discharge 
the duties of the office, and I accepted the appointment 
with the firmest resolutions to go through the business 
annexed to it in the best manner I was able. Every argument 
conspired to make me exert myself, and I endeavored by in- 
dustry and attention to make up for every other deficiency. 

"As to my conduct both in & out of Congress, in the 
execution of your business, it is improper for me to say any- 
thing. You are the best judges. But I think I shall be 
forgiven if I say I have spared no expense, or labor, to 
gratify Your wishes, and to accomplish the views of Congress. 
My health being much impaired I find some relaxation ab- 
solutely necessary after such constant application. I must 
therefore request Your Indulgence for leave of absence for 
two months. But I cannot take my departure, gentlemen, 
without expressing my thanks for the civility & poHteness 
I have experienced from you. It is impossible to maintain 
this without a heartfelt pleasure. If any expressions have 
dropped from my lips which have given offence to any mem- 
ber during the long period that I have had the honor to fill 
this chair, I hope they will be passed over, for they were 
prompted by no unkind motive. 

"May every happiness, gentlemen, attend you, both as 
members of this house and as individuals, and I pray 
Heaven that unanimity & perseverance may go hand in hand 
in this house, and that everything which may tend to dis- 
tract or divide your councils be forever banished." ^ 

* "Mass. State Archives," Ms. vol. 196, p. 23. 



226 John Hancock 

In response to this address a motion was made 
on the day when he took leave of Congress to pre- 
sent him with the tha^^ of that body for the ad- 
mirable discharge of his duties; but opposition 
came from an unexpected quarter when New Eng- 
land delegates, for reasons of their own, defeated 
the motion on the pretence that it was injudicious 
to pass complimentary resolutions in the case of 
any president. Samuel Adams got the credit 
of being responsible for this affront, which Hancock 
resented to the extent of breaking with his friend 
after his return to Boston. In this he had nu- 
merous partisans to join with him, to the dis- 
advantage of Adams and to the maintenance of an 
ill-feeling which lasted for years. Hancock had 
not forgotten the matter of electing a commander- 
in-chief, in which both the Adamses were active 
and influential, overlooking merits which he at 
least thought worthy of consideration. Here was 
an opportunity to atone in part for that sHght 
which his colleagues had not only neglected, but 
had added another indignity to the first, when a 
compliment would have been freely paid him by 
general consent. The entire question of the en- 
mity between Hancock and Adams is not settled 
by mention of any single cause or occasion. They 
were members of two parties that sprang up in 
Congress; they belonged to two divergent social 
castes ; their habits of thought and views of policy 
were not alike ; their ambitions were in different 



President of Congress 227 

directions, and there was no strong tie to bind them 
closer as the Revolution proceeded towards the 
organization of a new republic, where each man 
should find his own. The early need of each for 
the other vanished : soon it was to be every man 
for himself. 

In a fortnight from the date of his last letter to 
his wife he was on his way toward Boston and 
wrote the following letter to her : — 

"Dover (within 60 miles of Hartford) 
" Saturday i of Clock 
"8 Nov. 1777. 

" My Dear : I am thus far on my journey to meet you, 
thank Luck for it. I have gone thro' many Difficulties 
on the Road, but that I shall not mind. The Remembrance 
of these Difficulties will vanish when I have the happiness 
of seeing You. I am still obliged to have my foot wrapped 
up in Baize, but I brave all these things. I hire this person 
to carry You this letter in Confidence it will meet You at 
Hartford. I shall get along as fast as I can, but having 
a party of Light horse with me I do not travel so fast as 
I otherwise should. What if you should on Monday morn- 
ing set out to meet me, on the Litchfield Road & then if I 
am not able to reach Hartford that day, I shall have the sat- 
isfaction of seeing You on the Road. If you think the ride 
will be too much I would not have you undertake it, but 
I hope You will not ride many miles before we shall meet, 
as I trust Mr. Bant is with you. my Regd's to him, my 
best wishes attend him. Remember me to Mrs. Collier 
for I suppose you are there. I am sorry I cannot take 
Fairfield in my way but I crossed so high up it was not 
possible. I have much to say, but refer all to the happy 



228 John Hancock 

time when I shall be with you. God bless j^ou — my dear 
girl, and believe me with sincere affection 

"Yours forever, 
^ "John Hancock. 

"Mrs. McDagle this moment comes into the Tavern & 
is going to dine with us." ^ 

According to his request and arrangements his 
wife met him on the road, as implied in a paragraph 
in a Hartford newspaper of November 19: *'0n 
Friday last passed through this town, escorted by 
a party of light dragoons, the Hon. John Hancock, 
President of the American Congress, with his lady, 
on his way to Boston, after an absence, on public 
business, of more than two and a half years.'* 
But the wife came without the child, who had 
died during the summer stay in Massachusetts. 

It was safe travelling in New England after the 
Hudson River was crossed, the British being occu- 
pied elsewhere ; but the official station of the Presi- 
dent of Congress and the sentiment of the time, 
together with its agreement with Hancock's own 
sense of his position, required a display commen- 
surate with its importance. This was confirmed 
by the cordial demonstrations of welcome which 
attended his arrival home, as reported in the 
* ' Pennsylvania Ledger . ' ' 

"This day arrived at Boston in Massachusetts, under an 
escort of American light dragoons, the Honorable John 
Hancock, Esq., President of the American Congress, and 

1 Wales Ms. printed in Brown's "His Book," p. 222. 



President of Congress 229 

first major-general of the militia of that state. By his com- 
ing into town sooner than was expected he avoided some 
public marks of respect which would otherwise have been 
paid him; his arrival was made known by ringing the bells, 
the discharge of thirteen cannon of Colonel Craft's park of 
artillery on the common, the cannon on the fortress on Fort 
Hill, and the shipping in the harbor. The independent 
and hght infantry companies paid him their military salutes. 
He received the compliments of gentlemen of all orders; 
and every indication was given of the sense the public has 
of his important services to the American cause." ^ 

Hancock was not so puffed up by his exalted 
station in Congress as to despise the position of 
moderator in a town-meeting which was called 
soon after his arrival home, to which he was unani- 
mously chosen, as also at another meeting a week 
later. At the first one, held on December 8, the 
thanks of the town were voted him for the donation 
of one hundred and fifty cords of wood to the poor 
in a time of distress. In the first month of the new 
year, 1778, a meeting of the State representatives 
was held, when the Articles of Confederation and 
perpetual Union between the United States of 
America which had been framed by Congress came 
up for discussion and ratification. Massachusetts 
was specially favored in having Hancock in the 

* Cited in "Old Boston Days and Ways," Crawford, p. 250. 

There was a man who could write to a sympathetic friend : 
"Pray, my Friend, what occasioned the very sudden Return of 
Mr. H. ? He arrived quite unexpected. Various are the con- 
jectures for the true Cause ; his Friends say the airs of Philadelphia 
doth not suit him." — Letter of Savage to S. Adams from Boston, 
ad July, 1778. — "Mass. Hist. Soc. Proc," 1910, p. 333. 



230 John Hancock 

chair to set forth reasons why this and that pro- 
vision had been inserted. It is not improbable 
that his return had been timed with reference to 
this action of his natwe State, which he would 
wish to have concurrent with the final decisions 
of Congress; a result not to be secured in some 
States with ready unanimity, nor without a repetition 
of congressional debates. John Adams might have 
had another explanation of Hancock's return, like 
the one he recorded in his Diary the year before : — 

"Mr. Hancock told C. W. yesterday, that he had deter- 
mined to go to Boston in April. Mrs. Hancock was not 
willing to go till May, but Mr. Hancock was determined 
upon April. Perhaps the choice of a Governor may come 
on in May. What aspiring little creatures we are ! How 
subtle, sagacious, and judicious this passion is ! How 
clearly it sees its object, how constantly it pursues it, and 
what wise plans it devises for obtaining it !" ^ 

It is not always easy to reconcile the sentiments 
of John Adams about John Hancock at different 
times. WiUiam Cunningham in 1791 reminds 
Adams that on one occasion in his own house, — 

"You turned yourself towards your front door, and 
pointing to a spot in view, you laughingly exclaimed, 'yes, 
there is the place where the great John Hancock was born. 
. . . John Hancock ! a man without head and without 
heart ! — ■ the mere shadow of a man ! — and yet a Governor 
of old Massachusetts! ' " 

But in a letter to Judge Tudor, June 5, 1813, 
Adams wrote : — 

* " Life and Works of John Adams," 11, 435. 



President of Congress 231 

"The two young men whom I have known to enter the 
stage of hfe with the most luminous, unclouded prospects, 
and the best founded hopes, were James Otis and John 
Hancock. They were both essential to the Revolution, 
and both feU sacrifices to it. . . . They were the first 
movers, the most constant, steady, persevering springs, 
agents, and most disinterested sufferers, and firmest pillars, 
of the whole Revolution." 

And in a letter to Rev. Jedediah Morse, D.D., 
in 1818, he wrote: — 

"Of Mr. Hancock's life, character, generous nature, 
great and distinguished sacrifices and important services, 
if I had forces, I should be glad to write a volume. But 
this I hope will be done by some younger and abler hand." ^ 

Hancock was living when the invidious remark 
was made to Cunningham. He had been dead 
twenty and twenty-five years respectively when the 
letters were penned by Adams; an instance of the 
adjustments which time often makes. . An English 
author 2 thinks that he was to some degree actu- 
ated by a malevolent feeling towards Hancock, and 
declares that he was mentally and morally incapa- 
ble of discerning high merit in any one but himself. 

A pleasant contrast to the sneering insinuations 
of John Adams is revealed in the letter of Washing- 
ton to Hancock on the eve of his departure, in 
reply to one from the latter containing a notice of 
his intention to retire from the chairmanship. It 

1 Loring's "Boston Orators," p. ii6. 

2 Henry Belcher, in "First American Civil War," ii, 5- 



232 John Hancock 

was similar to that which he had laid before Con- 
gress, containing this additional sentence : — 

"As the Congress will dpubtless proceed to appoint a 
successor in my stead, oiwiim therefore will devolve the 
business of the chair. The politeness and attention I have 
ever experienced from you, in the course of our correspond- 
ence, will always be the source of the most pleasing satisfac- 
tion to me." 

Washington thereupon wrote: — 

"Head-Quarters, 22 October, 1777. 
"Dear Sir, 

"It gives me real pain to learn, that the declining state 
of your health, owing to your unwearied attention to pubUc 
business, and the situation of your private affairs, oblige 
you to relinquish a station, though but for a time, which 
you have long filled with acknowledged propriety. Mo- 
tives as well of a personal as of a general concern make me 
regret the necessity that compels you to retire, and to wish 
your absence from office may be of as short duration as 
possible. In the progress of that intercourse, which has 
necessarily subsisted between us, the manner in which you 
have conducted it on your part, accompanied with every 
expression of politeness and regard to me, gives you a claim 
to my warmest acknowledgements. 

"I am not so well informed of the situation of things 
up the North River, as to be able to give you any satisfac- 
tory advice about your route. I should rather apprehend 
it might be unsafe for you to travel that way at this time, 
and would recommend, if you can do it without any material 
inconvenience, that you should defer your journey till there 
is some change in affairs there, or till they have taken a more 
settled form. If you should, however, resolve to proceed 
immediately, and will be pleased to signify the time, an es- 
cort of horse will meet you at Bethlehem, to accompany 



President of Congress 233 

you to General Putnam's camp, where you will be furnished 
with another escort in the further prosecution of your journey. 
" I am extremely obHged to you for your pohte tender of 
services during your intended residence at Boston, and shall 
always be happy, when leisure and opportunity permit, if 
you will give me the pleasure of hearing from you. I have 
the honor to be, &c." * 

On one occasion at least, it appears by the fore- 
going letter, safety demanded the attendance of a 
troop, which Hancock's maligners attributed to 
his love of display. Some of them illustrated 
the partisan spleen of the day by saying that tavern 
keepers had to pursue the company to get pay for 
their entertainment; which assertion bears the 
myth-mark of a fragment left on the highway by 
some bankrupt circus rather than a part of the 
itinerary of John Hancock travelling at the coun- 
try's expense or his own.^ Of course the chief 
value of the two letters is their testimony to the 

* Sparks' "Washington's Writings," v, io6. 

2 It is of a piece with this paragraph in the "Pennsylvania 
Ledger" of March ii, 1778 : — 

"John Hancock of Boston appears in public with all the state 
and pageantry of an Oriental prince ; he rides in an elegant chariot 
which was taken in a prize to the Civil Usage pirate vessel, and by 
the owners presented to him. He is attended by four servants 
dressed in superb livery, mounted on fine horses richly capari- 
soned; and escorted by fifty horsemen with drawn sabres, the 
one half of whom precede and the other follow his carriage." 

On some occasion of ceremony, doubtless, as the author of 
**01d Boston Days and Ways" suggests when citing the above 
newspaper correspondent on page 275. Even the Spartan Samuel 
Adams once rode in Hancock's coach drawn by six horses on the 
occasion of M. Gerard's arrival as the first French ambassador to 



234 John Hancock 

cordial relations existing between the two principal 
officials, civil and military, in a time when there 
were jealousies, rivalries, and plottings enough 
to imperil the cause fff which all pretended to 
be working, and that more than once came near 
ruining it; as in the instances of General Charles 
Lee's disloyalty, the Conway cabaFs scheming 
against Washington, and Arnold's treason. There 
was nothing in the attitude of these two principals 
beyond a stately ceremoniousness characteristic of 
the age in which they lived and the caste to which 
they belonged. 

The anniversary of the ''Massacre" was to be 
kept in Boston for five years more before it should 
be superseded by the national celebration of the 
Fourth of July. On its eighth return, 1778, Jon- 
athan William Austin was the orator at the Old 
Brick Meeting-House. John Hancock presided 
as the foremost citizen at the Faneuil Hall meeting, 
recalling his own performance four years earlier. 
Four days later he took the chair at the annual elec- 
tion of town officers, but was called to the House 
of Representatives on the following day. On the 
27th he was again presiding, as if there were no 
other man in Boston who could satisfy its people. 
And when on May 27 seven men were to be chosen 
to represent the town in the General Court, Han- 
cock received three hundred and thirty-five votes, 

the United States. But he seldom used the coach presented him 
when governor, returning it at the end of his term. 



President of Congress 235 

the largest number given any candidate. His popu- 
larity was undiminished and his usefulness at home 
unimpaired by his malady, to all appearances. 

He had now been absent from Congress six 
months, with what rest from parliamentary prac- 
tice his townsmen would allow him, and his own 
willingness to be employed. An additional reason 
for his prolonged stay may be found in the expected 
arrival of another child, who was born May 21, 
and named John George Washington, an intended 
compliment to the Commander-in-Chief, to which 
he could have not been insensible, and an evidence 
of Hancock's continued regard for him. The 
former President was soon back in Congress as a 
deputy, and on the 23d of June was writing to his 
wife from Yorktown whither the deputies had 
taken themselves after the occupation of Phila- 
delphia by Sir William Howe. 

"York Town, June 22,, 1778. 
" My Dearest Dolly : — Mr. Taylor having agree- 
ably to his wish been Charg'd with some Dispatches for our 
Commissioners in France, sets off for Boston immediately 
& to Sail from thence as Soon as the Packett is ready, by 
him I embrace the oppor'y of writing you, altho' I wrote 
you Two Letters the Day before yesterday, & this is my 
Seventh Letter, and not one word have I heard from you 
since your departure from Boston. I am as well as the 
peculiar scituation of this place will admit, but I can by no 
means in justice to myself continue long under such dis- 
agreeable Circumstances, I mean in point of Living, the 
mode is so very different from what I have always been 
accustom'd to, that to continue it long would prejudice 



236 John Hancock 

my health exceedingly. This moment the Post arriv'd, 
and to my very great Surprise and Disappointment not a 
single line from Boston; I am not dispos'd to Resent, but it 
feels exceedingly hard to b^^Jighted and neglect'd by those 
from whom I have a degree of Right to expect different 
Conduct ; I would have hir'd any one to have sent a few 
Lines just to let me know the State of your health, but I 
must Endeavor not to be so Anxious & be as easy as some 
others seem to be. I will expect no letters nor write any, 
& then there will be no Disappointment; So much for 
that. To be serious, I shall write no more till I hear from 
you, this is agreeable to my former promise. It really is 
not kind, when you must be sensible that I must have 
been very anxious about you & the little one. Devote 
a little time to write me, it will please me much to hear 
of you, I am sure you are dispos'd to oblige me, & I pray 
I may not be disappointed in my opinion of your Disposi- 
tion. 

" I hope this will meet you tolerably Recover'd from your 
late confinement, I wish to hear of your being below Stairs 
& able to take care of our Dear little one. I am much con- 
cern'd about your improving the fine Season in Riding. I am 
sorry I did not take hir'd horses & leave you mine, but I beg 
you to spare no Cost in Riding for the Establishment and 
Continuance of your health, hire horses whenever you are 
dispos'd to Ride, be as frugal & prudent in other matters 
as is consistent with our Scituation; I wish to know every 
Occurence since my departure, pray be particular as to your 
health in your Letters & give me an exact state of little John. 
Does Mrs. Brackett intend continuing with you ? I beg she 
may at least until my Return. My love to her, pray her to 
take great care of the little fellow. As soon as the City of 
Phila is cleansed, I judge Congress will remove thither, & as 
soon as we have got over the important Business now before 
Congress I shall solicit leave to Return home, as it will not 



President of Congress 237 

be necessary for so many of our Members to be here, but of 
this more hereafter. 

"As I have wrote so many Letters & see no Returns, & 
as I am caUed to attend Congress, I must Refer you to Mr. 
Taylor for every particular relative to our Scituation. 

"My regards to Mr. & Mrs. Bant, my Brother & Sister, 
& indeed to aU Friends as if nam'd. Remember me to Sprigs 
and Harry, & to all in the Family. 

"Do let me have frequent Letters, you will oblige me 
much. My best wishes ever attend you for the highest 
FeUcity, & I am with the utmost Affection and Love. 

"Yours For ever, 

"John Hancock." * 

The 'important business" before Congress which 
he mentions in this letter had brought him back as 
a delegate, as Henry Laurens of South Carolina had 
been elected President in his place on November 
I, 1777, after his departure for Boston. Tidings 
of the treaty with France had been received in 
April, 1778 ; Lord North's olive-branch commission, 
granting all that the colonies had originally claimed, 
had arrived to divide and divert the colonials, to 
which Congress replied in effect that when the king 
and Parliament should be disposed to put an end to 
the war they would attend to his proposals as an 
independent nation.^ The embassy faiHng, the 
war went on, although desertions and financial 
troubles were disheartening its supporters, and in 
both the army and Congress intriguers were at- 

1 "New England Magazine," Old Series, xii, p. 537- 

2 More fully stated in "Britain and her Rivals," Arthur D. 
Innes ; London, 1895, P- S^o. 



238 John Hancock 

tempting to supplant Washington, their only hope. 
In the midst of the general darkness the sky cleared 
over Philadelphia when^fter the famous farewell 
banquet to Loyalist friends, in which Major Andre 
figured, General Clinton led the British army out 
toward New York, and the American army took 
its place on June 18 under Arnold's command. 
Then a part of Congress was glad to get back to 
its old quarters on July first; but a week later, 
in the lack of a quorum. President Laurens, "as 
an individual," congratulated Washington upon his 
success at the Battle of Monmouth ten days be- 
fore. On the seventh, however, a sufficient number 
assembled to pass commendatory resolutions for 
Washington's activity in pursuit, and general effi- 
ciency in battle in gaining an important victory. 
They might have added: despite the treacherous 
retreat of General Lee, by which the partial victory 
came near being turned into a defeat. As it hap- 
pened, by the personal valor of the commander, 
the field was recovered and another impulse given 
to the rising tide of confidence. 

According to his intention, expressed in the last 
letter to his wife, Hancock left for home soon after 
the return of Congress to Philadelphia. He nat- 
urally found less interest in its proceedings than 
when he was chairman of a deliberative body whose 
distinction for ability and wisdom was greater 
than it had lately been, and some of whose members 
had not been contributing to the success of the 



President of Congress 239 

cause by their disloyalty to the Commander-in- 
Chief. It is more than probable, too, that absence 
from home, the infrequency of liis wife's letters, the 
comparative solitude of his lodgings, and the im- 
paired condition of his health made longer residence 
in Philadelphia less endurable than formerly. 

On his arrival in Boston the first week in August 
he was chosen moderator of a town-meeting which 
had a matter to consider second in importance to 
none that had arisen since the declaration of in- 
dependence. He was also chosen chairman of a 
committee appointed to consider the question and 
report at a future meeting. This question was in 
brief, — What answer shall be returned to Loyal- 
ists who were seeking to return to Boston, and what 
policy shall be pursued toward them in the future ? 

It could not be expected that Tories would ob- 
tain mercy at the hands of the Whigs during the 
war, nor that the hatred and prejudice against 
them would die out in that generation or even the 
traditional stigma of their position in the next. 
From the patriot side they were regarded as a part 
of the royal forces fighting with the king against 
their countrymen and the Hberties which had been 
allowed them by previous monarchs, and later, 
against the independence which a growing majority 
was trying to secure. It was of no avail to remind 
Whigs that before 1770 every inhabitant of the 
land was a Tory, some grumbling against the 
throne and ministry according to the right and 



2^0 John Hancock 

habit of true Britons everywhere, but for five 
years from that time having no thought of more 
than a reform of recentjegislation and the repeal 
of a new king's oppressive enactments. Neither 
was it to any purpose to remind Whigs that Tories 
belonged to the conservative party of wealth, 
influence, prosperity, and respectability, which 
had more to lose than the shifty populace, without 
property or business interests, who had formed the 
rank and file of the revolutionary movement at 
first, as distinguished from the solid men who pre- 
ferred to endure minor ills if thereby they should 
escape the greater ones which they foresaw in the 
breaking up of stable foundations. All at once or 
by rapid transfer these colonial upper-class people 
became political criminals and enemies to the 
leaders of revolt, and especially to their followers, 
who were always ready for rough methods of con- 
verting the aristocracy to their own side, even though 
at an occasional and material profit to themselves. 
In theory a republic was better than a monarchy ; 
liberty than dependence: why should not every- 
body strike for freedom ? Tories answered : Be- 
cause your repubHc is as uncertain as the future, 
with drawbacks that are now unthought of but sure 
to appear. Moreover a war of indefinite duration 
and uncertain outcome lies between you and pos- 
sible achievement or probable failure, with all that 
this means to rebels. We prefer to pay a three- 
penny tax and continue loyal citizens of an empire 



President of Congress 241 

which in the long run has held a foremost place 
among the nations of the earth.^ 

Accordingly they were at first counted as aliens 
by the insurgent class, then as enemies, and by the 
issue of the war they became outcasts. To be sure, 
their negative attitude at first did not continue, 
but changed into a hostile disposition in retalia- 
tion for persecutions inflicted. There is not much 
to say for the credit of either party in a civil war 
which went on within the war with Great Britain. 
If the Tories had seen the crown triumph their treat- 
ment of the rebels, as they called the Whigs, might 
have been no better than they themselves received. 
The human nature of a single race is not changed 
by party names or the fortune of war. Therefore 
it is an interesting speculation to conjecture what 
a victorious Tory party would have done with 
defeated Patriots. It is safe to say that Samuel 
Adams and John Hancock would have been sent 
to England for trial if not for execution as traitors ; 
but towards the people at large there was a growing 
spirit of conciliation as the war went on, for reasons 
which cannot be detailed here. It is unfortunate 
that it cannot be said with equal truth that as the 
patriot cause looked more hopeful, and even when 
independence was assured, the hostility toward 

* " The first ebullition of popular patriotism had evaporated ; 
and while all clamored about freedom, each wished to make as 
few sacrifices as possible in order to obtain it." Robert Sears's 
"Pictorial History of the American Revolution," p. 205. 



242 John Hancock 

resident or banished Loyalists was diminished. 
During the war every species of intimidation had 
been used to bring them into the patriot ranks; 
indignities not usually practised in dignified war- 
fare had been thrust upon them. Eighty-five 
thousand had been driven into Canadian exile 
alone, besides other thousands who had fled to other 
British possessions, leaving houses and lands, 
business and friends. Confiscation followed exile, 
with poverty and distress in strange and inhos- 
pitable regions. The Acadian story which excites 
American sympathy has at least the mitigating 
feature of removal southward to gentler cHmes; 
while the colonial dispersion was chiefly into north- 
ern latitudes, which our Saxon ancestors used to 
designate as the domain of a chilly goddess with a 
name which, by a singular inversion of meaning, 
and the addition of one letter now belongs to a place 
of fiery torment. So the exiles themselves used to 
place in the same category '^ Hell, Hull, and Halifax." 
Nor did the British troops have a better opinion of 
the chief city, which they called '' a cursed cold, wintry 
place, even yet (April 18). Nothing to eat, and less 
to drink." However, they had only two months of it, 
for on June 7 they embarked for New York. But the 
fifteen hundred refugees were left in Canada to shift 
for themselves in suffering and privation wherever 
they could find a foothold. After two years they 
were now asking to be allowed to return to their be- 
loved Boston. In the words of one of their number, 



President of Congress 243 

they had been '^Loth to quit this Shore and will be 
Loth, while there is a glimmering of Hope of return- 
ing to their beloved abode in Peace and credit." ^ 
Their appeal was now before Hancock and his 
committee to consider and report to the Legisla- 
ture. The consideration was deliberate and the 
report delayed; but when at length it was made 
the form of it was as follows : — 

'^Resolved — that the Inhabitants of this Town will 
exert themselves to the utmost in supporting the Civil 
Magistrate in the execution of this Law, [against the Tories], 
that those professed Enemies to our Rights and Liberties, 
the first fomentors of our present Troubles, who have left 
this Country and aided the British Tyrant in his worse than 
savage measures, to deprive Americans of everything that 
ought to be held dear and sacred by any People, may not 
return and enjoy in common, the fruits of what our immortal 
Patriots, have toil'd and bled to procure us, and in some 
future time to be again the base and cursed Instruments of 
British Seducers, in involving a happy People in confusion and 
bloodshed, in order to realize the reward, and private advan- 
tages held out to such Traitors by the enemies of America." 

This reply, which is in the style of Hancock, 
seems hke a harsh answer to his old acquaintances 

1 "Letters of James Murray, Loyalist," p. 273. The clergy of 
the Church of England here naturally were loyalists. " Other 
clergymen were with the people, of the people, and ministers to the 
people." — Bancroft, "Hist. U. S.," viii, 185. This recalls Lin- 
coln's paraphrase at Gettysburg ; but Webster anticipated both 
when he said: "It is, sir, the people's constitution, the people's 
government; made for the people, made by the people, and an- 
swerable to the people." — "Second Reply to Hayne," Jan. 
26, 1830. 



244 ]^^^ Hancock 

now in the desolate places of Nova Scotia; but 
the case against Tories as a body is not overstated. 
As early as the spring 0^775 there was an associa- 
tion of Loyalists in Massachusetts "for mutual 
defence against the rebels." After the Lexington 
affair, those in Boston formed themselves into a 
Volunteer Corps and insisted on staying in town 
to stand between the colonials and the British 
troops. They had opposed sending provisions to 
the besieged inhabitants; had urged the British 
government to strong action, and the soldiery to 
violence against the Whigs, while they denounced 
Gage's inactivity. It was worse in New York, 
where Tories constituted half the population. 
There was a body of mihtia in that State which 
at one time numbered 5,855 men ; and in the coun- 
try at large there were at least 50,000 of them in 
arms during the war at one time and another. 
They enlisted freely in the British army and navy, 
and furnished supplies to the enemy when Ameri- 
can troops found it difficult to obtain them. Con- 
temptible acts of partisan warfare may be passed 
over, since their Patriot foes repaid them in their 
own coin. Their hostility was even more fratri- 
cidal than that of the British against men of their 
own race, because they were fighting against their 
own countrymen, often neighbors and relatives, 
and protracting a war which would have been 
ended sooner if they had not held out encourage- 
ment to the crown and Parhament by constant 



President of Congress 245 

misrepresentation from the beginning to the end 
of the strife. Franklin considered them as the 
main cause of its continuance by making the min- 
istry believe that the rebellion was by a few men 
of no account, and that the majority were ready 
to submit, they themselves being as they said 
four-fifths of the entire population.^ 

It was in the midst of the war and with such 
facts before them that Hancock and his friends 
considered the exiles' requests to return.^ If the 
contest had been finished, with the result that fol- 
lowed five years later, this committee might have 
been asked which of the two general methods of 
victors toward the vanquished they were going to 
put themselves on record as pursuing, the generous 
or its opposite. Not much mercy has ever been 
expected from savage tribes in their brutish war- 
fare, and no great favor between different races 
in ancient times, especially toward rebellious 
provinces. But between factions of the same race, 
citizens of the same country, neighbors in the same 
town, and members of the same famihes it is 

1 For further particulars respecting this important factor in the 
war for independence see the exhaustive work of Sabine on the 
"LoyaUsts of the American Revolution " ; Van Tyne's "Loyalists 
in the American Revolution," and mention in his "American Rev- 
olution," with a bibliography of the subject on p. 338, in which 
James Murray's "Letters" are of peculiar interest. Also James 
H. Stark's "Loyalists of Massachusetts and the Other Side of the 
Revolution," — the Tory side. 

2 Concerning Refugees' claims see "American Archives," IV 
Series, 1232, 1344, 1377, 1381. 



246 Jc>hn Hancock 

reasonable to look for lenity from the party which 
has the consolations of victory, and whose overlook- 
ing of mistaken views and misplaced hopes could 
not affect the outcome of the strife. Since this 
was not over, and thousands of Tories were in 
arms, hoping for the downfall of the Patriot cause, 
exiled bands or individuals could not be permitted 
to return with safety to the general welfare, how- 
ever they might behave in a single State. Other 
States where they were making more trouble, as 
in the South, would not thank Massachusetts for 
what might be called giving aid and comfort to the 
enemy. The disturbing faction was less danger- 
ous where it had betaken itself, although less com- 
fortable. If they had been allowed to return they 
would have found Boston what they feared it 
would be for them without the presence of the 
British forces, " worse than Halifax " and the two 
other places in the triple alliteration above men- 
tioned. Reproach and scorn would have been the 
least of their sufferings. There are sons and daugh- 
ters associations of this and that colonial order, in the 
commendable desire to commemorate noble service 
in war and peace, but the great multitude of Loyal- 
ists, of whom Washington said that they had a right 
to choose their side ; who at first were guilty of 
nothii^g more than of fidelity to the home govern- 
ment and the empire of which they were citizens, 
and later of living or dying for it, — of this large 
body and respectable in British eyes there is no 



President of Congress 247 

disposition to perpetuate the name and memory, 
unless in Canada. It stood for what was to pass 
away here ; it resisted the coming of a better king- 
dom; it fell with the old domination and oppres- 
sion; and the new order could not forget or for- 
give its hostility to repubHcan principles and a 
democratic state. 

Considering these and other aspects of one of the 
most vexatious problems that confronted the fathers, 
Hancock and his compatriots cannot be blamed for 
a seeming hardheartedness in turning a deaf ear to 
the entreaties of their former neighbors and friends 
to be allowed to return to their homes in the midst 
of hostilities. When these ceased, conditions were 
changed and generosity could prevail with greater 
safety ; although it can be said : with less profit 
to holders of confiscated estates bought low.^ 
Yet the best terms that Great Britain could secure 
for its loyal colonists when terms of peace were 
agreed upon were, that Congress should "recom- 
mend leniency to the several States " in their treat- 
ment of Tories.^ For its own part the home govern- 
ment employed as many as it could, and for the 
temporary support of the unemployed it expended 

1 On Loyalist property the Patriot had a covetous eye. 
'* $36,000,000 worth was confiscated by the State of New York 
alone." — Van Tyne, "American Revolution," p. 267. 

2 The first article of the treaty with Great Britain was to secure 
fishing rights : the second was a counter recommendation to 
Americans of consideration for Loyalists. The text of the treaty 
is in "National Documents," N. Y., 1908, p. 77. 



248 John Hancock 

over 40,000 pounds sterling annually before the end 
of the war. Afterward additional burdens were 
ungrudgingly assumed for the expatriated; five 
hundred acres of land^o each family, building 
materials, tools, and even food. In this way nearly 
$9,000,000 were spent in Canada before 1787. In 
addition, some $19,000,000 were paid for losses of 
property by the well-to-do on their claims for forty 
millions. Among these were governors, judges, 
councillors, commissioners, college presidents, and 
clergymen. After all that was done for them they 
were dissatisfied and unhappy. In Canada they 
were wretched ; in England they were disregarded 
and thrown back upon the companionship of the 
lower classes. There was Httle left for them but 
to drag out a lonely existence to the end of their 
days.^ 

1 An instructive account of Loyalist life in England after the 
war is given by Trevelyan in his "American Revolution," iii, 231. 
Also a personal account in Samuel Curwen's "Journal." 



CHAPTER XVI 

EXPEDITION TO RHODE ISLAND 

When Hancock's commission as Colonel of the 
Cadets was revoked by General Gage soon after 
his arrival in Boston he said : ''I shall always pre- 
fer retirement in a private station to being a tool 
in the hand of power to impress my countrymen." 
He also declined to serve as a governor's coun- 
cillor and remained in the House of Representatives. 
But an appreciative commonwealth, by way of 
compensation, on February 8, 1776, ''made choice 
by ballot in the House of the Honorable John Han- 
cock, Esq. to be First Major-General of the MiHtia 
in this Colony." So far as authority and official 
station go he was now abundantly equipped for 
distinguished achievement in the country's service. 
All that was lacking to test his ability was a fa- 
vorable opportunity. Soon this also was furnished. 

The only places of any importance held by the 
enemy at that time were New York, and Newport, 
Rhode Island. In December, 1776, the island had 
been seized by Lord Percy, who left it to General 
Richard Prescott when he went home the following 
spring. This blustering hero ruled the town with 
a ''big gnarled stick," ^ his constant companion, 
1 John Fiske. 



250 John Hancock 

until that night when a party of Yankee soldiers 
caught him at a house five miles out of town, and 
taking him out of bed carried him off in his night- 
gown and sent him to^eneral Washington on the 
Hudson, by whom he was afterward exchanged 
for General Lee — a poor bargain. In the summer 
of 1778 Sir Robert Pigott was in command of the 
troops on the island, numbering 6,000 men, in- 
cluding a strong detachment from the garrison in 
town which had been stationed at the northern end 
of the island. The capture of this force had for 
a year and a half seemed like the prospect of bag- 
ging half the British invaders, for which enter- 
prise New England yeomen began to muster when 
the word was given. Nine thousand of them as- 
sembled, including fifteen hundred picked troops 
which Washington sent under Greene, who was at 
home in Rhode Island. Thither came also the 
aquatic Glover of Marblehead, invaluable where 
ferrying was to be done, and Lafayette where 
French was to be interpreted and spoken, as a 
good deal of it was to be before this expedition 
should end; for Count d'Estaing, his kinsman, was 
on the way with a fleet and four thousand French 
regulars. General John Hancock was also coming 
with about five thousand miUtia-men from Massa- 
chusetts.^ Hopes were high that Pigott and his 
six thousand would be entrapped, and in this way: 

1 He commanded the right of the second Hne between the first 
and the reserve. 7 "Mass. Hist. Soc. Coll." iv, 246. 



Expedition to Rhode Island 251 

the French were to cross over from Conanicut 
island on the west to meet the Americans coming 
from the mainland on the east. Together they 
would get between the two British divisions and 
easily capture both. 

Three things happened to upset this admirable 
arrangement. First, Pigott called in the northern 
division to the main garrison at Newport. Then 
Sullivan, who had kept the French fleet in the offing 
for ten days while waiting for troops to arrive, 
through some whim of his own suddenly and with- 
out notice to d'Estaing crossed over from Tiverton, 
the French troops being now on Conanicut.^ At 
this moment Lord Howe appeared off point Judith 
with thirteen ships of the Hne, seven frigates, and 
several small vessels. Instead of leaving his land 
force to assist the American army d'Estaing took 
it aboard and sailed out to engage Howe. For 
two days the fleets circled around each other to 
get the weather-gage. On the third a tempest 
set in which was remembered for fifty years as the 
Great Storm.^ Both squadrons were driven out 
to sea, and although a few straggling ships ex- 

1 For SuUivan's acount of his own precipitancy see 7 " Mass. Hist. 

SOC. Coll." IV, 247- . , .J . r .u- 

2 For a description of one day in camp m the midst of this 
storm see the letter of the artist Trumbull on the 13th August, 
1778, in 6 "Mass. Hist. Soc. CoU." iv, 126. 

Major Lyman, Hancock's aide-de-camp, wrote Gen. Heath,— 
"Major General Hancock is in fine spirits, and sends compliments. 
We wait for nothing but fine weather to advance." — /6., p. 150. 



252 John Hancock 

changed shots the British were glad to steer for 
New York and the French for Boston to make 
repairs. It was three weeks before d'Estaing col- 
lected his dispersed and damaged fieet.^ Over- 
ruled by his subordinate officers, he did not 
leave his troops to co-operate with the American 
army at Newport ^ and in consequence great dis- 
appointment and wrath followed, with insubor- 
dination and desertion. Then Clinton landed four 
thousand British troops, and the expedition which 
had promised so much ended by withdrawal of 
the American forces from the island.^ The ten 

* On the 12th Hancock wrote Washington : — 

"Rhode Island, August 12, 1778. 
"Dear Sir, 

"Nothing material has turned up since my Letter of yester- 
day. There are flying Reports that Count DeEstaing has taken 
some and sunk other of the British Fleet but they are so vague and 
uncertain that nothing to be depended on can be collected. To 
my mortification I find that a large number of our Troops are 
without Tents or Covering and suffer very greatly in the present 
Storm. About 300 of our men who were enlisted for 15 days and 
whose time was out on yesterday, left the Army notwithstanding 
all my Desires and Entreaties with them to tarry but one Week 
longer. As soon as the Weather clears up I hope to have account 
of the French Fleet, Nothing material will be attempted but 
in conjunction with Count De Estaing." — "Mass. Archives," 
Ms. vol. 199, p. 413. 

2 Count d'Estaing's explanation of his action in this affair 
may be found in a letter to the Commander-in-Chief, in which he 
gave his approval of Sullivan's course. The latter was not so 
courteous. Sparks' "Writings of Washington," vi, 30. 

' "Admiral Rodney tried to get Clinton to besiege Rhode Island 
(Newport) and recover the noblest harbor in America, but Clinton 



Expedition to Rhode Island 253 

days of delay in getting the militia together before 
British reinforcements arrived upset the whole 
enterprise. It also came near alienating the 
French allies through hasty words spoken and 
written by American officers and the general out- 
cry of soldiers against the "false and fickle French."^ 
Four gentlemen prevented a serious disruption: 
Washington and d'Estaing by their pohte and 
reassuring letters to each other, and Lafayette 
by his seven hours' ride to Boston and conference 
with d'Estaing and the General Court about the 
Count's leading his regiments back to Newport. 

John Hancock, however, was the man who stood 
between an angry populace and several ship-loads 
of foreign soldiers, sailors, and subordinate officers 
with leave to go ashore. A riot occurred between 
them and American sailors the hour they stepped 
on the wharves. The valuable French alliance 
was in danger of a chill. It was then that Hancock 
showed himself a greater diplomat than soldier. 
According to some of his contemporaries he did 
not distinguish himself in the Newport campaign : 
for that matter no one achieved greater glory 
than a successful retreat bestows; special men- 
tion being made by Congress of Lafayette's gal- 
said it was too late." — Mark's "England and America," ii, 491, 
1067. 

^ The American sense of the French withdrawal to Boston is 
seen in a letter of Judge Barrett's to Gen. Heath, in which he 
speaks of the allies as "Heroes of Flight." — 7 "Mass. Hist. Soc. 
CoU."iv, 260. 



254 John Hancock 

lantry in bringing off sentries and pickets. But 
Hancock left the field before the encounter which 
hastened the retreat, pretending, his maligners 
said, to be anxious aoout the French fleet on its 
way to Boston. He knew the town well enough 
to have reasonable apprehensions about the re- 
ception it might meet, which were justified by the 
event. Eleven years afterward a political oppo- 
nent in the campaign of 1789 illustrated the truism 
that any failings of a candidate in any age are 
capital for the opposition. He also threw a side- 
light on the expedition, and incidentally exhibited 
a personal prejudice whose strength is its own 
antidote. But he cannot be passed by. 

"Mr. H. was Major General of the Militia, at the time 
that memorable expedition was set on foot. He ever had 
a great fondness for parade of every kind. Having heard 
much of the pleasures of the camp, and conceiving this a 
fine opportunity to pluck a military laurel without any 
danger to his person, he sought, and obtained the command 
of our militia. — He appointed his aids — he prepared his 
accoutrements — and with all the parade of a veteran con- 
querer, he issued his orders, and made the necessary arrange- 
ments to march to the field. When he got to Rhode Island 
he took an eligible situation for his quarters — he appeared 
on the parade en militaire — he sallied out often for air and 
exercise, and he sometimes approached so near to the enemy, 
under the idea of reconnoitering, as to distinguish, by the 
aid of a good perspective, that the British flag was still fly- 
ing at some miles' distance. Martial musick and military 
movements alone delighted ; and never was the fire of military 
ambition so conspicuous in any man's countenance and con- 



Expedition to Rhode Island 255 

duct. . . . But this flame was of short duration. The 
severe cannonade at the arrival of the French fleet, though 
at several miles' distance, disordered his nerves; the sound 
of the drum disturbed his muscles, by alarming his fears; 
and his nightly slumbers were short and uncertain, from 
lively scenes of blood and carnage, which a heated imagina- 
tion was continually presenting to his view. 

"This situation was too painful and humfliating for the 
Man of the People long to endure. He grew peevish and 
uneasy — he complained of the length of the campaign — 
and he talked frequently of quitting the field. This, his 
aids, who were men of spirit, were fearful would soon happen. 
They felt for his and their own honour; they used every argu- 
ment to allay his fears — to compose his nerves, and to 
awake his ambition, and were in hopes to succeed. But 
the departure of the fleet, the roar of the cannon, and the 
smell of powder was too much for our hero to support. He 
resolved to return home — he dreamed that his child was 
sick and dying — he fancied that the fleet had gone to Boston, 
and could not refit in his absence; but more than this, he 
imagined that the British were roused, and he could not 
believe it safe or prudent for the man of the people to remain 
any longer on the Island. His fears were more powerful 
than all other passions together; and he flattered himself, 
that by urging his great anxiety for the safety of the fleet 
as the cause of his flight he might save his reputation. . . . 
Having good cattle he reached home in a few hours, and the 
first question upon entering the town was, as to the safety 
of the fleet ; but after being at rest a Httle time, and finding 
himself safe in his own house, his fears subsided — his 
solicitude for the fleet abated — and he enjoyed his pleasures 
as well as ever — he recounted his exploits in the field, and 
gave a lively description of the enemy's alarm when he 
reconnoitered their posts. 

"Thus ended Mr. H.'s memorable campaign in Rhode 



256 John Hancock 

Island; and these were the laurels gathered in that famous 
expedition. If it be thought that they are not of the best 
tint possible, it should be remembered that he cropt them 
flying, and had not time t^elect the best plants. 

"But to treat this important subject with more serious- 
ness, I would ask, who that had the feelings of a man, or 
more than that, the feeHngs of a patriot, which he pretended 
to have, would have left the camp at so critical a moment; 
when the British were expected to attack the American army, 
and every one was anxious for the safety of our country and 
its cause. ... A regard to his own honour, and the safety 
of hi6 country, should have raised him above all concern 
for his personal safety, or the enjoyment of his friends and 
family at home. . . . But instead of this, the General was 
amongst the first, if not the very first, to leave the Island, 
in a time of danger; he deserted the post he sought after, 
and most unworthily filled; and he left the gentlemen who 
accompanied him, and the troops he commanded to shift 
for themselves, or fall a prey to the British. Instead of per- 
suading his officers and men, by his own example, willingly 
to submit to soldiers' fare, and to keep those quiet under the 
hardships of their station who had before been accustomed 
to elegance and luxury; he was always studying new means 
of dissipation, and kept carriages constantly passing to 
supply him with luxuries from hence. . . . 

"I would now ask, where was the merit of this unsoldier- 
like conduct ? How or at what time did he serve the publick 
by this expedition, or do honour to himself? Did he not 
on the contrary do as much injury to the country, and dis- 
honour to himself as he could do by an evil example? 
Was there anything in his conduct upon this occasion, that 
was not opposite to that of a Hero, or the 'Saviour of his 
Country?' Did he not leave those, who followed him from 
personal attachment to the field, in a very dangerous situa- 
tion, and in a most disgraceful manner; and was the eventual 



Expedition to Rhode Island 257 

escape of the troops, which he led, from the hands of the 
British, in any degree owing to his attention, firmness or 
prudence?" ^ 

There is no possibility of misunderstanding the 
spirit which inspired these sentences taken from 
one of ten partisan articles in a Boston newspaper 
before the election of a governor in 1789. They 
are in the style of Junius, so far as their acrimony 
and acerbity can make them, but there the like- 
ness ends. However, present concern is not so 
much about the manner and method of a personal 
attack upon Governor Hancock as to inquire 
what other explanation there may be for what 
must be accepted as facts, since the bluntness of 
their statement is in itself a challenge to their 
denial, if it could have been made. 

Let it be admitted that Hancock was not a 
military genius. That he ever aspired to anything 
beyond the captaincy of his Cadet Company 
must be taken as one of the instances of mistaking 
one's calling, and of the love of the pomp and 
circumstance of war apart from its inconveniences 
and hardships, suffering, and peril. On this 
particular campaign of delays and catastrophe 
there seems to have been the chance for but one 
man to achieve success, namely, the British com- 
mander, who missed his opportunity, when after 
the storm he might have swept his enemies from 

1 "Writings of Laco" (Stephen Higginson), in "Boston Cen- 
tinel," 1789. 



^58 John Hancock 



the Island, instead of leaving them to retreat. 
Hancock could not be expected to outshine Sullivan 
and Greene: the ret^t was determined upon, 
and it was only a question as to whether he could 
be of more service in the field or in Boston. It 
may be conceded that he was of no great use in 
helping to break camp and get the army off the 
Island. He had not had an opportunity to show 
of what value he would have been in an attack. 
There was something, however, that he could 
accomplish for the cause in his native town that 
would reach far beyond its limits. 

As has been noted, there was imminent danger 
of alienating the French allies through words and 
treatment they had not merited, since American 
delays, and precipitate action at last, together 
with a tempest, had brought about the disaster 
for which blame must be thrown upon somebody. 
It fell upon the allies, and they resented it. 
Hancock saw, as Washington saw, that something 
must be done to counteract the animosity that 
was springing up on account of unwise words that 
some of the American officers had spoken and 
written, to be repeated by soldiers and civiHans, 
ending with a scrimmage on the docks. It was not 
a reception to soothe the irritation of the French. 
Hancock, who had reason to foresee trouble, 
hastened home to do what he might to mend 
matters. Now he was in his own sphere and un- 
surpassed in it. A cordial and hospitable wel- 



Expedition to Rhode Island 259 

come to the allies might be of as much value as 
a royal order to continue to co-operate with the 
Americans. The town itself in a time of scarcity 
and general poverty could not do much toward 
entertaining, even if it had the disposition; 
but Hancock's fortune was not wholly gone, and 
therefore he undertook to represent the community 
in hospitable ways which were worth more just 
then than diplomacy or arms. Accordingly, in- 
vitations general and particular were sent to the 
French officers, which brought some forty of them 
to his house and table each day. Once they came 
uninvited to breakfast, driving cooks to despair, 
and compelling Mrs. Hancock to send servants 
out to milk all the cows on the Common without 
looking up their owners. This raid of the lace- 
bedizened appears to have been a Gallic pleasantry, 
paralleled by another which was inflicted on Bos- 
tonians when they accepted a return of hospitalities 
by the fleet, which Madam Hancock used to 
describe with graphic force in her old age. Deli- 
cacy was not a drug in society at that time. The 
straits to which the bounteous and patriotic host 
was sometimes reduced, the following letter will 
show. It was written to Henry Quincy, at that 
time in Providence. 

" Monday Noon, 30 Augs*. 
"Dear Sir: The Philistines are coming upon me on 
Wednesday next at Dinner. To be Serious, the Ambassa- 
dor &c., &c., &c., are to dine with me on Wednesday, and 



26o John Hancock 

I have nothing to give them, nor from the present prospect 
of our Market do I see that I shall be able to get anything 
in Town; I must beg the fav'r of you to Recommend to 
my Man Harry where he^n get some Chickens, Ducks, 
Geese, Hams, Partridges, Mutton, or any thing that will save 
my Reputation in a Dinner, and by all means some Butter; 
Be so good as to help me, and you will much oblige me; is 
there any good mellons or Peaches, or any good fruit, 
near you? Your advice to Harry will much oblige me; 
Excuse me, I am very troublesome; Can I get a good 
Turkey; I walk'd in Town to-day; I dine on board the 
French Frigate to-morrow; so you see how I have Re- 
covered. 

"God bless you; if you see any thing good at Provi- 
dence, do Buy it for me. I am Your Real friend John 
Hancock." * 

To crown all, Hancock in the name and to the 
credit of Boston, gave a banquet and ball to about 

1 From Salisbury's "Family Memorials" in Brown's "His 
Book," p. 228. "A large company of gentlemen and ladies dined 
on board the 'Languedoc' at the invitation of Count d'Estaing. 
A picture of General Washington at full length, lately presented 
to the Count by General Hancock, was placed at the centre of the 
upper side of the room, the frame of which was covered with 
laurels." — Ford's "Writings of Washington," vii, 200. "It has 
been said that Mrs. Hancock invited two hundred Boston women 
to accompany her to this dinner — possibly to return the French 
invasion of her own dining room. She used to say that at this 
time her husband 'kept 150 turkeys in the coach house, turning 
them out on Beacon Hill pasture in the daytime and diminish- 
ing their number by half each evening.' Levies for cake some- 
times made upon neighbors were devoured by hungry midship- 
men in the hall before it could reach the dining room, and had to 
be smuggled in under cover. Seventeen cups of tea were swal- 
lowed by one thirsty Frenchman." — Diary of Gen. William H. 
Sumner, in "Mag. Am. History," xix, 504. 



Expedition to Rhode Island 261 

five hundred of the French allies. It is reported 
that by reason of the troublesome gout he was 
not able to be present at the town-meeting held 
next day. He recovered sufficiently to be busy 
in the General Court soon after and to preside in 
frequent town-meetings. His diplomatic hospi- 
tality had served its purpose in helping to restore 
good feeling between French and American leaders, 
ensuring a continuance of aid fron Louis XVI. 
So far this co-operation had not appeared to ren- 
der much assistance in the field ; but it had diverted 
and crippled forces of England which would have 
been turned against America. What Washington 
most desired was a detachment from the French 
army to co-operate with his own raw levies. This, 
Lafayette, seconded by d'Estaing, urged upon the 
king and Vergennes, and he was authorized to 
take the promise of a reinforcement to Washing- 
ton on his return to America. Two months after 
his arrival seven ships of the line and three frigates 
brought six thousand troops to Newport under 
Count Rochambeau, that were to be followed by 
a second installment, which unfortunately never 
came, being blockaded at Brest by a British fleet. 
Meantime a squadron from New York kept the 
allies' fleet and army idle for a year at Newport, 
unable to do anything for Washington. How- 
ever, the French government had not been idle; 
and in the spring of 1781 it sent twenty-eight 
ships-of-the-line and six frigates carrying 20,000 



262 John Hancock 

men under Count de Grasse to act in concert with 
Washington and Rochambeau. The storm of 
war had been moving up from the South, and 
Cornwallis had encampea on Yorktown peninsula 
where he could be backed by a naval force that had 
thus far given the English their supremacy. In- 
stead, it was a French fleet that drew up behind 
him, and kept the British ships at bay, while 
Washington hastened to the front to keep him 
in the pocket. The French troops and American 
together stormed British redoubts, and on the 
third day Cornwallis surrendered. The contest 
for liberty was practically over, and even the 
stubborn king was obHged to agree with his 
ministry that he was beaten. 

So far as the final result was concerned no one 
at the time would have thought of giving John 
Hancock any credit for a hand in it. The French, 
however, were not insensible to the assistance 
which they gave in the crucial battle which put 
an end to British successes. Had it not been 
for Hancock's hospitable diplomacy even Lafayette 
might have found it impossible to restore a cordial 
understanding between the two countries. If 
it had been broken off, the war might have been 
prolonged so long as British ships could bring 
troops to a country that had no navy to protect 
its coasts and to supplement its army. The 
French have always, and with reason, claimed 
a large share of credit for the Yorktown surrender. 



Expedition to Rhode Island 263 

Hancock would not have distinguished himself 
there ; but he deserves some recognition if he 
helped to preserve an aUiance which secured that 
victory. 

The whole matter of the important part which 
France bore in the war for independence is apt 
to be overlooked after a century and a third. It 
is not necessary here to inquire into the motives 
of those in high places, — as their hopes of trade 
and their hatred of England. The generous policy 
of Vergennes, the sacrifices of Beaumarchais, and 
the devotion of Lafayette may stand for the sen- 
timents of the nation whose practical expression 
was in millions of treasure and supplies and thou- 
sands of soldiers when the American cause was, 
by Washington's own admission, on the brink 
of ruin. Eight months before the siege of York- 
town he said: "If the French do not come to 
our assistance speedily it will be too late, for we 
are at the end of our tether." They came, and 
by reason of their coming the surrender at York- 
town turned the scale in our favor, when without 
them the other alternative was more than probable. 
They might not have come if John Hancock had 
not made reparation for the rebuff which the first 
expedition received from his fellow citizens of 
Boston.^ 

There were other and less conspicuous services 

* A list of ships, oflScers, and men is given in " Les Combat- 
tants Franfais de la Guerre Americaine," Paris, 1902, 



264 John Hancock 

which Hancock rendered the cause, as when he 
sent forward to General Washington that most 
needed and efficient discipKnarian, Baron Steuben, 
and his aides ; furniffing them not only with 
vehicles from Boston, but also with funds. 



CHAPTER XVII 

FIRST GOVERNOR UNDER THE CONSTITUTION 

Massachusetts in common with some other 
States turned to the framing of a Constitution 
when it appeared probable that the statehood 
which had been declared would become permanent. 
It has already been observed how much more 
important in its own opinion were the affairs of 
each State than those of the nebulous Union. 
This poHtical system was in a formative stage, 
but the centripetal forces were slow in overcoming 
the centrifugal and in bringing repellent bodies 
around a common centre, which itself was vague 
and unformed. Hancock might have brought 
the federal idea into Massachusetts councils from 
what he had heard of it in Congress; but it is 
to be feared that he had heard there more about 
States' rights and their retention and maintenance, 
if he did not personally favor them to the preju- 
dice of federation. Eight years were to pass be- 
fore all the colonies should cease to consider them- 
selves distinct republics; raising troops, making 
war on their own responsibility, and dealing with 
one another merely as allies in a common cause, 
but not as parts of an integral nation. 



266 John Hancock 



On the first of September, 1780, three hundred 
delegates to a Constitutional Convention met at 
Cambridge. Hancock was among the number 
representing Boston. After a general discussion 
of a Declaration of Rights and the appointment 
of a committee of thirty to prepare the Declara- 
tion and a Constitution of Government, and a 
sub-committee of three to make drafts and report, 
the Convention adjourned for six weeks. When 
it met again, on the 28th of October, two questions 
that elicited lively discussion indicate that the 
people were looking both backward and forward: 
first, in the debate about the support of ministers 
by the town, according to the old Puritan practice; 
and second, on the question of emancipating slaves 
and forbidding slave trade, to the incidental 
damage of the rum-distilling industry. Adjourn- 
ing often for lack of a quorum, and reassembling 
from time to time, the Convention after six months 
evolved a Constitution, to be laid before the 
people of the State for a two-thirds vote of ap- 
proval. To help secure this, it was accompanied 
by an explanatory address. By the first week 
in June it had been accepted by the towns, and 
the Commonwealth of Massachusetts was more 
of a republic than ever, with the experiment 
of entire and unshared self-government before it 
for the ensuing eight years. 

The first officer to be chosen was a governor. To 
this office John Hancock was elected by an over- 



First Constitutional Governor 267 

whelming majority, — of 11,000 out of 12,281 votes 
cast for seventeen candidates. There was some 
surprise that Samuel Adams was not chosen, in 
consideration of his eminent services in the cause 
of independence, and of his position in the Con- 
tinental Congress, where he was still occupied. 
It would be charitable to think that his con- 
stituents were so sensible of his value to the federal 
cause that they would not tempt him to absence 
by calling him home to occupy the gubernatorial 
chair. It is to be feared, however, that less worthy 
considerations made for the success of his rival. 
Adams's friendly biographers have not hesitated 
to perpetuate the story that in the estrangement 
between the two men the supporters of Hancock 
had worked against Adams, with the former's 
consent. An additional explanation can be found 
in the fact that there was a reconstruction party 
which followed that of demolition to which Adams 
belonged, if he was not its creator, less radical 
and more conservative and constructive than his 
own. Pontics, too, were succeeding to pure pa- 
triotism in the new order, and builders followed 
the wreckers. To his sympathizing wife Adams 
wrote a dignified letter with no note of disap- 
pointment at what she had deemed republican 
ingratitude. A few sentences will reveal the tone 
of it. 

"Many circumstances have combined to make this 
election appear to be politically necessary. If the people 



268 John Hancock 

will watch over men whom they exalt to places of power 
I flatter myself that this will prove a happy choice. I wish 
that he may have the most faithful counsellors to assist 
him in the administration (^^ffairs." 

What Adams lacked in resentment has been 
supplied so long afterward that it is difficult to 
ascertain the exact grounds for charges against 
Hancock. Insinuations and general remarks about 
his vanity, caprice, and similar failings, with 
animosities for which there was some excuse, 
do not substantiate accusations of malicious dis- 
paragement of Adams through the agency of 
friends. If true, it was not the first instance, as 
it was not the last, in which political prejudices 
have found expression in terms not advantageous 
to the opposition; but the proof in this case is 
a matter of tradition rather than history, and 
much more vague than the vilification of Hancock 
by ''Laco" in the campaign already mentioned; 
in which more definite detraction was printed 
than can be laid to the charge of Hancock or his 
friends with respect to Samuel Adams.^ Passing 
over this political aspersion as incident to a polit- 
ical campaign, it is of more account to ask how 
Hancock entered upon the duties and responsi- 
bilities of the first governorship of the Common- 

^ Stephen Higginson condescended to add: "I might collect 
many handsome things to be said in his favor ; but I mean not to 
notice either his failings or virtues in private life." — "Writings 
of Laco," p. 29. 



First Constitutional Governor 269 

wealth of Massachusetts on October 25, 1780. 
His inaugural address should be taken as out- 
lining his disposition and policy in a new and 
trying condition of affairs. Previous to taking 
the oath of office he remarked to the assembly 
of both houses in the Council Chamber : — 

"Honorable Gentlemen: 

"It would have ill become me at so eariy a moment after 
being notified of my appointment by the respectable com- 
mittee of this honorable assembly, to appear here to comply 
with the quahfying requisitions of the Constitution, had 
not the circumstances of the returns made the choice a 
matter of public notoriety some weeks past, and receiving 
it from such authority as confirmed its reahty, led me to 
contemplate the subject; and, although fully sensible of 
my inability to the important purposes of the appointment, 
yet having, in the early stage of this contest, determined 
to devote my whole time and services to be employed in my 
country's cause to the utter exclusion of all private business, 
even to the end of the war, and being ever ready to obey the 
call of my country, I venture to offer myself; ready to 
comply with the requisitions of the Constitution, and 
regularly and punctually attend to the duties of the depart- 
ment in which my country has been pleased to place me." 

The oath taken, he was declared Governor from 
the balcony of the State House. His first in- 
augural address then followed. A part of it is 
given here. 

"Gentlemen of the Senate, and Gentlemen of the House of 
Representatives, — 
"With a sincere and warm heart I congratulate you and 
my country on the singular favor of heaven in the peaceable 



270 John Hancock 

and auspicious settlement of our government upon a Con- 
stitution formed by the wisdom and sanctified by the solemn 
choice of the people who are to live under it. May the 
Supreme Ruler of the worl^pfce pleased to establish and per- 
petuate these new foundations of liberty and glory. 

"Finding myself at the head of this Commonwealth 
by the free suffrages of its citizens, while I most sensibly 
feel the distinction they have conferred upon me in this 
election, I am at a loss to express sentiments of the grati- 
tude with which it has impressed me. In addition to my 
natural affection for them, and the obligations they have 
before laid upon me, I have now a new and irresistible mo- 
tive, ever to consider their happiness as my greatest interest, 
and their freedom my highest honor. . . . 

"Of all the weighty business that hes before you, a point 
of the first importance and most pressing necessity is the 
estabhshment of the army in such consistency and force, 
and with such seasonable and competent supplies, as may 
render it, in conjunction with the respectable forces sent 
to our assistance by our powerful and generous ally, an 
effectual defence to the free Constitutions and independence 
of the United States. 

"You cannot give too early or too serious attention to 
that proportion of this business that falls to the share of 
this Commonwealth. . . . The Commander-in-Chief, in 
whose abilities and integrity we justly repose the highest 
confidence, has repeatedly stated to us the necessity of an 
army engaged for the whole war. Nor should a moment 
of time be lost in establishing an object so essential to the 
preservation of our liberties. Care at the same time ought 
to be taken that the necessary supplies be committed to men 
on whose principles and affection to our great cause, as well 
as capacity for such service, we may safely depend. 

"The support of the public faith stands in close connec- 
tion with this measure of defence, and, indeed, is absolutely 



First Constitutional Governor 271 

necessary to it, and to the whole interest and honor of the 
State. No expedient should .be unexplored to maintain 
our credit and remove all just ground of complaint from the 
army that protects us, or from those who have relied on 
public engagements. What friend to his country would not 
cheerfully bear his proportion of the expense necessary for 
this purpose ? " 



It will answer the present purpose to outline 
the substance of this Address from this point. 
He proceeds to emphasize the need of attention 
to methods of intercourse with Great Britain, 
and of care with' regard to secret enemies at home 
and abroad, with the protection of seacoasts and 
commerce, as well as the defence of the western 
frontier. Support of the separation of legislative 
and judicial powers of the government is recom- 
mended ; also an avoidance of any infringement 
of the rights of conscience; which evidently sug- 
gested a plea for the relief of the teachers of re- 
ligion and morality who had suffered by the de- 
preciation of currency; also for distressed widows 
and orphans of soldiers. A due observance of 
the Lord's Day, and the support of religious in- 
stitutions, deserves the attention of civil govern- 
ment; also provision for the education of youth, 
established by the fathers, should be continued 
and increased in the care and patronage of public 
schools and the university at Cambridge. Early 
revision of the laws of the Commonwealth is rec- 
ommended, with special reference to the mihtia. 



272 Jol^i^ Hancock 

and for the suppression of idleness, dissipation, 
extravagance, and the encouragement of their 
contrasting virtues. In all these measures he 
promised cheerful concurrence and every despatch 
in his power. He closed with these words : — 

"May the new government diffuse a new animation 
through the whole pohtical body; the people expect much 
from it, perhaps more in some points than circumstances 
will allow it to perform; but standing as we do upon their 
choice and affections, and strenuously exerting ourselves 
as we ought for their interest, they may find it happily 
advanced. 

"May Heaven assist us to set out well, to brighten the 
auspices of our Constitution, to render it still more beloved 
and admired by the citizens of this Commonwealth, and 
to recommend it to the whole world by a wise and impartial, 
a firm and vigorous, administration of it." 

Hancock's disposition led him to usher in the 
new government with a display which many con- 
sidered unbecoming in a time of general depres- 
sion. Others were glad of a few days' festivity 
in the prevailing want and financial distress, so 
long as it cost them little or nothing beyond ap- 
propriate dress for ''the round of balls and gUt- 
tering entertainments with which the new govern- 
ment was inaugurated." The Governor himself 
appeared in the elegant chariot which caused so 
much comment in Philadelphia two years before, 
when it was "attended by four servants in Hvery, 
mounted on fine horses richly caparisoned, and 
escorted by fifty horsemen with drawn sabres, 



First Constitutional Governor 273 

half of whom preceded and the other half followed 
his carriage." When plain Sam Adams heard of 
the reproduction of what he had seen in the Quaker 
city he wrote: ''I am afraid there is more pomp 
and parade than is consistent with sober repub- 
lican principle. . . . Why should this new era be 
introduced with entertainments expensive and 
tending to dissipate the minds of the people?" 
But this was Hancock's supreme hour. He had 
attained the highest political eminence possible 
to a civilian : he was going to make the most of it, 
for his own gratification and for the entertainment 
of his friends. His warehouse had been burned, 
but the British had not greatly damaged his 
mansion, and his fortune was not all gone. 

Moreover, there was no lack of furnishings and 
table appointments suited to his lavish hospital- 
ity. The linen tablecloths and napkins in which 
the host took such pride he declared were ''the 
most genteel in the country." Six dozen pewter 
plates, bearing his family crest, kept bright with 
daily use or polishing, were more to his liking than 
the ''India china set, as it was softer and rattled 
less, and food was less apt to fall off." Much 
of his silver bore the Tower of London stamp. 
There were four dozen silver forks, the same 
number of spoons, several tankards of different 
sizes up to a gallon flagon which was devoted to 
hot punch and named for his friend Solomon 
Townsend — possibly in token of that worthy's 



274 John Hancock 

capacity and valor at the festive board. A silver 
porter-cup of half a gallon, whose two handles 
might have made it s^^e as a loving-cup passing 
from hand to hand; four silver chafing-dishes elabo- 
rately chased, as many butter-boats; asparagus 
tongs and half a dozen heavy silver candlesticks, 
with snuffers and trays to match; silver finger- 
bowls and salvers in their place and time, all to- 
gether made table and sideboard resplendent. Ac- 
cording to the taste of the day the fare matched 
the table furnishings. The codfish which he took 
pains to have from the Bay when he lived in Phila- 
delphia and Baltimore was good enough for his 
spring Fast Day dinner; and the first salmon of 
the season, for which he paid a guinea was a delicacy 
on any feast day; albeit he by no means sub- 
sisted upon fish alone, as is evident from his pur- 
chasing-orders and complimentary remembrances 
to friends even as far away as London. People 
ate to live in those days, even if some of them 
lived to eat and to drink, thereby hastening 
their demise. 

Apparel matched other splendors in the Hancock 
house. A hint of this can be seen in the scarlet 
velvet coat and white silk embroidered waistcoat 
preserved in the Old State House, supplemented 
in their day by silk of many colors and lace with- 
out end. The costliness of Mrs. Hancock's attire 
and its variety do not so much amaze the present- 
day woman, since between the adornment of 



First Constitutional Governor 275 

colonial dames, then and now, there is less dif- 
ference than between that of their respective 
consorts. A wedding fan of white kid, painted 
in Paris with appropriate designs, and a piece 
of musHn, costing in India six dollars a yard before 
it left the loom, will appear extravagant to some. 
Other women may think that Mrs. Hancock was 
moderate in her expenditures. It is a matter 
of comparative ability among contemporaries. 
At this time Hancock kept the reputation of being 
one of the wealthiest citizens in a town where 
everybody had suffered losses, and all values had 
been depleted by the distresses of war years.^ 
The first of them had interrupted business with 
London and other foreign ports. Accounts could 
not be adjusted with agents nor collections made 
abroad ; while at home great losses occurred in 
the depreciation of paper currency, which the 
States found it easier to print than to redeem. 
Hancock lost thousands of pounds sterling, which 
should be placed to the credit of his patriotism 
in a time when, as in recent wars, there were many 
who talked noisily for a cause which made them 
rich through its necessities and their own greed. 
History remembers its military heroes, but for- 
gets the men who furnish arms and ammunition. 

* An account of the damages done to Hancock's estate by the 
British army, dated Feb. 28, 1777, to the amount of £4737, i, 8J, 
is contained in the "Chamberlain Ms.," No. 255, Boston Public 
Library. 



276 John Hancock 

After a decade Hancock's public service occupied 
so much of his time and attention that he turned 
his business affairs o^ to an agent, William 
Hoskins, to act for him at home and abroad. His 
native town and State had conferred their highest 
honors upon him, and the return he made was 
such as he could best render for values received; 
even though it went further with the populace 
than its cost would have gone with a needy army. 
If it also gratified his vanity and contributed to 
his popularity and poHtical success, that was his 
partial compensation for what he lavished. Be- 
cause he was vain and sometimes capricious it 
h not necessary to assert that every generous act 
of his was to win applause ; since until his govern- 
orship, and even the later treaty of peace, the 
outlook for any prominent patriot was far from 
assuring.^ Nor did the governor of the new State 
find conditions vastly improved over those of the 
old colony. The inhabitants had not changed 
their nature with their political constitution. 
Depression and discontent prevailed in the land, 
privation and distress in the army. In New 
England courage and determination slackened 

* Doubtless there was great appreciation of John Hancock's 
services to the cause on the evening of March 4th, 1784, when he 
entertained "His Honor, the Lieut. Governor, the Council, the 
President of the Senate, the Speaker of the House, together with a 
number of other respectable gentlemen," on the occasion of cele- 
brating the treaty of peace with Great Britain. — Ayer's "Early 
Days on Boston Common," p. 38. 



First Constitutional Governor 277 

after disasters in the South, and there was a grow- 
ing desire for peace in some sections which were 
getting ready to accept Hberal terms of settlement, 
without express acknowledgment of independence, 
which the British Ministry offered. 

Although Massachusetts did not propose such 
abandoning of its steadfast purpose, it had troubles 
of its own ambushed in the near future. The 
cessation of hostihties soon after Cornwallis's 
surrender by no means ended embarrassments 
for the governor of a State. War had brought 
new evils which were to flourish after its close. 
Privateering and speculation and war-contracts 
had made rich, daring, and venturesome men, 
creating distinctions of wealth, breeding dis- 
content between classes and masses, town and 
country people. Back in the western counties 
strife was brewing over taxation and debt. Courts 
were menaced with violence in Springfield and 
Northampton. Armed malcontents assembled in 
the field against State forces, which they captured, 
and released in Hadley by the riverside, to be 
themselves made captive in turn by the mihtia 
and dispersed; but the mob-spirit was not anni- 
hilated. It would soon break out again. The 
causes of discontent were increasing. The year 
1780 was one of disasters. In the South Charleston 
had surrendered, and the State was overrun by 
the British. Gates had been ignominiously de- 
feated. It was the dark hour before daybreak, 



278 John Hancock 

and no one as yet saw a streak of dawn. Four 
years had passed since independence was declared, 
but the States were neither free nor united. Con- 
gress was deteriorating there was no efficient 
administration; the conduct of the war languished ; 
resources and energies were wasted. 

The symptom of general depression which was 
most evident was the financial condition. It 
was easier to issue paper currency than to give 
it much value; so Congress printed more and 
more of it until, as Washington said, it took a 
wagon load of money to buy a wagon load of pro- 
visions. ^'Not worth a Continental" is a phrase 
which has come down from the month of Han- 
cock's first inauguration, when it took ten paper 
dollars to make a cent; when Indian corn was 
sold at wholesale in Boston for $150,00 a bushel, 
butter at $12,00 a pound, tea $90,00, sugar, $10,00, 
beef $8,00 and a barrel of flour at $1575,00.^ If the 
poor and prudent Samuel Adams paid $2,000 for 
a hat and a suit of clothes, what might John 
Hancock's annual outfit have cost? is a problem 
to be computed by logarithmic calculation or by 
the cart-load of paper money. Of course this vari- 
able and almost valueless currency was a boon to 
impecunious debtors when no agreement had 
been made with their creditors about standards in 
payment. He was poor indeed and honest who 
would not discharge a debt of a thousand dollars 

^ Trevelyan's "George III. and Charles Fox," I, 272. 



First Constitutional Governor 279 

with ten in gold ; but many did this to the ruin 
of friends who had trusted to their honor and to 
the financial standing of a confederacy which was 
not yet a nation among the nations of the earth. 

It has been seen that the first governor urged 
making efforts to maintain the credit of the State. 
These were not very successful. The General 
Court's appeal to the people contained suggestive 
words about *' giving up every consideration of 
private advantage, and the inattention or avarice 
of any part of the community." £950,000 was the 
estimate of what would be required by the State 
for the year 1781. The means proposed to meet 
this need were uncollected taxes, sales of LoyaUsts' 
estates, a direct tax of £320,000, and borrowing 
the remainder. In addition, Congress called on 
Massachusetts for its proportion of war assess- 
ment, amounting to almost $2,000,000. Taken all 
together it was a staggering burden for a poverty- 
stricken State, whose industries had been crippled 
by British oppression and war. In their despair 
some attempted to interfere with the administra- 
tion of justice and enforcement of the laws; but 
the inteUigence and fidelity of the better part 
prevailed. The next year the State was obHged 
to borrow, paying the troops what it could, and 
hoping for a return from the United States some- 
time in the future.^ 

^ The war cost England still more, — the loss of thirteen colo- 
nies and four islands, and more than £70,000,000. It was an 



28o John Hancock 

When the war ended in the spring of 1783 there 
was great rejoicing, but financial troubles were 
not over. The public debt was so large that many 
said it would be impi^ible to pay it, and they 
saw no way out but by repudiation, to the loss 
of creditors and the destitution of returned soldiers. 
Governor Hancock urged the General Court to make 
immediate provision for paying officers and soldiers 
a part at least of their dues, reminding legis- 
lators of "the obligations of the country for meri- 
torious services which should never be forgotten.'^ 
Upon his recommendation an additional tax of 
$470,000 was voted for this purpose. Soldiers' 
certificates for wages were at this time bringing 
only twelve and a half cents on the dollar ; a mere 
pittance for their services and sufferings. All 
these circumstances, severally and together, caused 
a widespread discontent; which was not allayed 
by the call in 1784 for $1,800,000 as the State's 
share of a congressional assessment upon the 
country for that year, with $95,000 more to satisfy 
immediate demands to pay interest due and an 
installment on a debt in Europe for funds bor- 
rowed by Franklin for the State. At this time 
also questions of state sovereignty and the rights 
of refugees to their property abandoned in flight 

expensive defence of "the right" to tax colonists, followed by 
failure. Marks' "England and America," 11, 1057. 

England's debt was increased by the American war £1 15,654,000 
up to January, 1783. Rose's "William Pitt and National Re- 
vival," 1, 179. 



First Constitutional Governor 281 

caused discussions which added to the burdens of 
the executive office. After five years in it Han- 
cock's health became seriously affected, and in the 
winter of 1785 he deemed it prudent to resign.^ 
No doubt his withdrawal, if not his malady, was 
hastened by complaints of the discontented that 
stronger measures had not been employed and 
more promptly to collect the public taxes. It was 
an instance of forbearance and leniency against 
necessity and duty. Some were quick to impute 
such clemency to a love of popularity or a lack of 
firmness in his administration. It is more prob- 
able that he saw a storm gathering which he could 
not avert, and had not the physical strength to 
weather, and so was willing to let a rival candidate 
in a former election take his turn in an ominous 
year. James Bowdoin was elected his successor 
in May, 1785. At the same time Hancock was 
chosen one of the representatives to the General 
Court, and afterward a delegate to Congress 
again, where he was elected its president once 
more for the short time that he remained. He 
had only to appear as a member of a deliberative 
body to be chosen to preside over it. When it is 
remembered what a test of fairness and good 
temper such a position is, it is strong evidence 
of their possession that he was repeatedly called 

iThe original draft of his resignation message, Jan. 27, 1785, 
is found in the "Chamberlain Ms." No. 286, Boston Public 
Library. 



282 John Hancock 

to the chairmanship of this and that assembly, 
from town-meetings to the Federal Congress. 

Governor Bowdoin had been elected by the 
Legislature, as there ^s no choice by the people 
in a divided ballot. He took the chair in a critical 
time, knowing the difficulties that would beset 
him. A State debt of $10,000,000, with no system 
of credit, resources exhausted, and discontent 
prevaihng made the situation full of anxiety. 
His first appeal was to maintain the credit of the 
State by punctual payment of interest and the 
diminution of public debt; also for industry, 
retrenchment, and economy : all of which the 
Legislature received with approbation and re- 
solves of co-operation. But the people were tp 
be heard from. The prospect of raising $333,000 
annually for fifteen years to clear off their debts 
was appalling; and the lawless element rose in 
arms against the authority of the State and of 
the courts in order to delay payment of personal 
debts. The lower class of malcontents chose two 
captains who had seen service, and threatened 
court houses, causing the justices to adjourn trials. 
The militia was called out in the eastern counties 
to disperse insurgents, but the courts deemed it 
prudent to discontinue business. A law was passed 
against riots, the writ of habeas corpus was sus- 
pended, and the governor was requested to hold 
the militia in readiness to protect the courts. 
At the same time pardon was offered for past 



First Constitutional Governor 283 

disorderly offences on the promise of allegiance 
to the commonwealth. The lawless misinterpreted 
this forbearance, and the violent urged "bringing 
the government to terms" by marching to the 
capital and liberating friends who were held for 
trial. Instead, three hundred marched to Spring- 
field and took possession of the court house, where 
their number was increased to two thousand. 
Then they advanced toward the arsenal, to find 
General Shepard with a thousand militiamen in 
possession. After the first volley the rioters fled 
to the next town with a loss of three killed. On 
the arrival of militia reinforcements, which under 
General Lincoln quelled another uprising in Berk- 
shire, the rebels were dispersed, after one hun- 
dred and fifty had been captured, the ringleaders 
leaving the State for their safety. By the prudence 
and firmness of the governor, supported by the 
Legislature and the militia, most of whom were 
more distressed than the rebelHous mob, the limits 
of personal freedom in the State were defined and 
license rebuked. Fourteen were sentenced to 
die, of whom eight were afterward pardoned, and 
the others reprieved. Thus ended Shays' Rebel- 
Hon, quelled by the vigor of James Bowdoin. 

As to what John Hancock would have done with 
it there were diverse opinions. Generally it was 
conceded that in his state of infirm health, and with 
his lenient spirit, joined to his regard for favor 
among all classes, it was worldly wisdom in him 



284 Jc>hn Hancock 

to be free from official responsibility in this perilous 
juncture. But there was no wind that did not 
blow some good to him. Governor Bowdoin's 
decision and promptircss, which saved the State, 
was contrasted by the restless with the milder 
course which Hancock might have pursued, without 
considering its disastrous consequences to the 
people at large. Accordingly, the disgruntled 
were ready to avenge themselves at the next 
election by throwing Bowdoin over and choosing 
Hancock, who had now conveniently recovered 
so far that he dared undertake a peaceful adminis- 
tration. It was also thought that he would 
''favor more indulgent measures towards the people 
in deferring the collection of taxes and in the pay- 
ment of the public debt." He had by no means 
countenanced disorder, but was considered more 
compassionate or patient in the distressed con- 
dition of the people. The popular approval of 
his candidacy was measured by the large majority 
of votes which he received, although Governor 
Bowdoin had a generous support, probably from 
the more respectable voters. 

Early in this administration Governor Hancock 
won praise by rehnquishing a third of his salary 
at a time when a committee was considering the 
expediency of reducing certain official stipends. 
It was a good example, which fortunately he was 
able to set; but he wished that it might not be 
considered as holding for over one year. When 



First Constitutional Governor 285 

in the following year he intimated his wish for 
a return to the original amount, the Legislature 
prolonged his temporary benevolence by not 
granting his desire. Governor Bowdoin did not 
listen to a similar suggestion in his administration, 
and it was reported that his successor regretted 
that he had not pursued the same course. The 
difference between voluntary generosity and in- 
voluntary became inconveniently apparent the 
second year, with an unusual application of the 
adage, ''He gives twice who gives promptly." 

The Federal Constitution was before the States 
for approval at this time, and was laid before the 
Massachusetts Legislature by the governor with 
commendatory words on the result of wise delibera- 
tion in Congress, in a conciliatory spirit, by some 
of the ablest men in the Union ; and he suggested 
calKng a convention to consider its approval. 

Three hundred and sixty delegates assembled 
in January, 1788, and chose Governor Hancock to 
preside. Opposition to the Constitution appeared 
at once as abridging the prerogatives of State legisla- 
tures and giving too much power to Congress. 
State sovereignty and State separatism were convic- 
tions not easily eradicated. Sectional antagonism 
came to the front over the provision to count five 
slaves as three freemen in apportioning the number 
of representatives from the southern States. As 
the discussion went on it came to be understood 
that the government would be partly federal and 



286 John Hancock 

partly national. National in matters relating 
to the welfare of the Union: federal in its powers 
for specific purposes ^ which no single State was 
competent. Opponents were at first in the major- 
ity, and might have succeeded in rejecting the 
Constitution if Governor Hancock had not proposed 
that several articles embodying suggestions that 
had been made during the debate of three weeks 
should be recommended for incorporation in the 
Constitution. In the hope that these definitive 
and restrictive amendments might be adopted 
several were induced to vote for ratification ; and 
the endorsement finally passed by a small majority. 
The wisdom of Hancock's action was confirmed in 
the approval of the suggested amendments by two- 
thirds of the States and the incorporation of these 
provisions into the Constitution. They were not 
altogether of his devising : he did not pose as a 
statesman ; but he had the tact and influence and 
wisdom to guide a many-minded assembly into 
the best way out of difficulty and to the saving of 
the confederacy from practical dissolution. 

At this point it is proper to notice a charge 
made against him at the time by his political 
enemies, which has been perpetuated in tradition 
and narrative. 

When the Convention assembled the Federalist 
friends of the Constitution had extreme doubts 
about its acceptance. The opposition were reason- 
ably confident of its rejection. Not until the 



First Constitutional Governor 287 

scheme of amendments was devised could much 
favorable progress be made. To give weight to 
the proposal it was deemed advisable to have 
it emanate from some one occupying a neutral 
position, having the confidence of the people and 
with great influence over them. Hancock, pres- 
ident of the Convention, was selected as such a 
man. Up to the amendment device he had not 
declared for the Constitution nor had he appeared 
in the chair. His detractors said that his con- 
venient gout kept him at home and added, that 
he was induced to attend at last by promises of 
support at the next gubernatorial election and of 
nomination to the vice-presidency, which had 
already been talked of, especially in the South. 
His friends might have answered, that he was 
suffering greatly in these last years, but came in 
spite of his infirmities, and that if promises of 
preferment were made, it was not the first instance 
of pohtical methods of persuasion, as it was by 
no means to be the last. The truth is, that in so 
momentous a question Hancock was no more 
hesitant than the Convention itself, a majority of 
which was at first, Sam Adams among the number, 
opposed to the Constitution. When the preju- 
dices of some were modified by quahfying amend- 
ments, formulated by Federalist leaders, Hancock 
saw a possible settlement of the question. Then 
he was encouraged to propose and defend the 
added provisions, leaving the chair and taking 



288 John Hancock 

the floor for this purpose, with such success that 
even Samuel Adams was induced to move their 
adoption. A sufficie^ number were also per- 
suaded to side with the Federalists to carry the 
ratification by nineteen votes out of a total of 
three hundred and fifty-five ; so narrow a majority 
as to indicate that there were still many doubts 
as to the expediency of a constitutional govern- 
ment. When, however, the measure was finally 
carried the opposition gracefully and rapidly 
acquiesced, and great was the rejoicing in Boston 
and throughout the Commonwealth. 

A result of still greater consequence followed in 
the endorsement of the Constitution by States 
which had waited to see how Massachusetts 
would go ; whose lead would have been followed 
in rejecting as readily as in accepting a union. 

If, then, the constitutional union of States 
depended upon the decision of Massachusetts, as 
the record shows ; and if this decision was brought 
about by the instrumentality of John Hancock, 
what measure of credit can fairly be accorded 
him for his share in saving the Republic in its 
infancy? Grant that he was merely a hinge on 
which the stupendous issue slowly turned; there 
was enough of force in it to swing open the portal 
for a broadening future of liberty and union 
under a constitution, instead of disintegration 
under a loose confederacy of petty principaHties. 
Say that he was no more than the pivot on which 



First Constitutional Governor 289 

the scale-bar trembles and wavers; but when 
his words and influence were thrown into the right 
scale was he a mere spokesman of the Federalists, 
or once more a deliverer of discordant States from 
eventual separation? He had helped to keep up 
the French alliance in a time when it might have 
been dissolved to the loss of our independence. 
Now, he more than assisted in making liberty 
continuous in a united nation. If he was not a 
great man he was most fortunate in standing at 
the parting of the ways and in pointing out the 
direction in which victory and perpetuity were 
eventually found to He. If his presence, his 
influence, his urbanity, his personaHty, had been 
absent on two critical occasions at least, the for- 
tunes of the country might have been great mis- 
fortunes. Let him have the honor that is his 
due.^ The following extract from his Message to 
the Legislature of Massachusetts in 1790, copied 
from the manuscript in the Greenough collection, 
is an illustration of his attitude. 

"I congratulate you, Gentlemen, on the accession of 
another State to our Union; and am happy to say, that I 
am persuaded that the Wisdom and tried patriotism of the 

^ For accounts of this incident compare Hannis Taylor's 
" Origin and Growth of the American Constitution," pp. 209, 210; 
Judson's " Lives of the Signers," p. 29 ; Bancroft's " Constitu- 
tional History of the United States," 11, 258, note 2 ; G. T. Curtis's 
" Constitutional History," i, 653 ; and for adverse testimony, 
Harding's " Constitution in Massachusetts, Harvard Historical 
Studies," II, c. 5. 



290 John Hancock 

Citizens of Rhode Island will very soon compleat the Union 
of all the Independent States of America under the System 
of General, National Government; the administration of 
which cannot fail to estaMsh peace and harmony between 
them at home. . . . 

"I congratulate you with great pleasure, Gentlemen, 
upon the happy situation of our Country. But the pleasing 
prospects afforded by divine Providence, ought not by any 
means to be the occasion of our relaxing in our endeavors 
for the public weal." . . . 

As if in recompense his own State was almost 
the first to profit by the new order. On the adjust- 
ment of claims for advances made to the govern- 
ment it was found that Massachusetts had already 
paid a large proportion of her dues, leaving a 
small amount to be met. Taxes being reduced, 
prosperity followed a new stability under the 
Union. Soldiers who had been able to keep their 
certificates were having them paid, principal and 
interest; good feeling was restored, and the 
Governor's customary good fortune returned with 
his re-occupation of the gubernatorial chair, to 
which he was again elected the following year. 

Prosperity, however, has its dangers; as when 
his arbitrary treatment of Lieutenant-governor 
Lincoln recalled his occasional sobriquet of "King 
Hancock." It might have been a pique at the 
general's successful quelling of Shays' rebellion; 
but whatever the cause, his conduct towards Lin- 
coln was ungenerous to say the least. The lieu- 
tenant-governor, as such, received no salary ; 



First Constitutional Governor 291 

but had usually been appointed commander of 
the Castle with a thousand dollars compensation 
for his services. Governor Hancock did not 
appoint General Lincoln to the command. When 
inquiry was made by the Legislature, the Governor 
replied that he had the sole right to appoint, 
and that it was for him to decide whether or not 
he would have anyone to command the Castle. 
He may have had the legislative economy in mind 
by which his own salary was cut down ; but this 
was the arbitrary act of one man in power; by 
which he deservedly lost many friends. A com- 
mittee was formed which reported in favor of a 
salary of six hundred dollars ; that sum Hancock's 
party in the House reduced to five hundred and 
thirty-three dollars. However, his arbitrary act 
was rebuked by this vote of the General Court. ^ 
With better grace he endorsed what may have 
been an over-statement of his real sentiments in 
an address to President Washington at his inaugura- 
tion in April, 1 781, in which gratitude was expressed 
for his services, admiration of his character, con- 
fidence in his wisdom, and the expectation of 
justice, fortitude, and patriotism in his adminis- 

^ He fared worse himself. On the i6th December, 1778, Con- 
gress "took into consideration the proper allowance for the honor- 
able gentlemen who had served as President, and they were asked 
to lay before the treasury board an account of their expenditures." 
Hancock, however, had gone home. There is no record of his 
having received any compensation for his services. — "Journals of 
Congress," in, 157. 



^g^ John Hancock 

tration ; to which were added congratulations and 
prayers for the divine protection and blessing. 

In his first message^ the Legislature after the 
federal government was established he spoke of 
the benefits to be expected from it to the nation 
and the State, and commended it to the confidence 
and support of the people ; also the practice of 
private and social virtues, the encouragement of 
learning and education as necessary to a free gov- 
ernment. ''Our wise and magnanimous ancestors 
were very careful and Hberal in the establishment 
of institutions for this purpose, among which the 
University in Cambridge, and grammar schools 
in the several towns, were believed highly impor- 
tant. Every necessary attention, I trust, will 
be paid to the former ; and I cannot but earnestly 
recommend to your inquiry the reason the latter 
is so much neglected in the State." The last 
part of this sentence is not so noticeable as his 
commendation of Harvard College at a time when 
it was weary with making requests to him as its 
treasurer for a settlement of neglected accounts. 
Nevertheless it returned his compliment, as will 
be noted later. His suggestion of provision for 
common schools was followed by reviving an 
early statute, by which towns of two hundred 
families were required to employ graduate teachers 
who could interest youth in the Latin and Greek 
languages; and in smaller towns teachers were 
to have a correct knowledge of EngHsh. So 



First Constitutional Governor 293 

much he did toward the revival of learning in 
New England. 

At this session the Legislature complimented 
the governor by naming one of the two new counties 
in the Maine district for himself and the other 
for Washington, with whom the governor was 
doubtless pleased to be associated.^ Still, his 
notion of the respective dignity of State and Federal 
executives would make the honor of this connec- 
tion reciprocal. To what extent he held such 
comfortable views was illustrated on the occasion 
of Washington's visit to New England soon after 
his taking the presidential office.^ 

After Hancock's return from the presidency of 
Congress and his election to the chief magistracy 
of his native State, his opinion of his own position 
could not have been impaired. He had arrived 
at what in those days was a greater distinction 

1 A town in Berkshire County was named for him in 1776, also 
one in New Hampshire in 1779, and another in Vermont in 1778. 
Also in the Public Records of Connecticut, i, 430, mention is made 
of the war vessel "Hancock." 

2 To a Frenchman visiting in the country in 1788 he gave this 
impression : "You know the great sacrifices he made in the Revo- 
lution, and the boldness with which he declared himself at the be- 
ginning of the insurrection. The same spirit of patriotism ani- 
mates him still. A great generosity, united to a vast ambition, 
forms his character : he has the virtues and the address of popu- 
larism ; that is to say, that without effort he shows himself the 
equal and the friend of all. Mr. Hancock is amiable and polite 
when he wishes to be ; but they say he does not always wish it." 
— Brissot de Warville's "New Travels in the U. S.," cited in 
"Old Boston Days and Ways," p. 373. 



294 J^J^^ Hancock 

than any except military chieftainship. He had 
attained to civic eminence, since there was no 
greater political honor than to be Governor of 
Massachusetts in the }^rs before the war closed, 
the confederation completed, and a President of 
the United States elected. Even then there was 
a general disposition to magnify the relative 
importance of a sovereign State in comparison 
with that of the new nation ; for it will be remem- 
bered that the untried federation was regarded 
with doubt and suspicion by many besides Samuel 
Adams. It was therefore a debatable question 
whether the president of an assemblage of naturally 
repellent principalities had as yet the definite 
authority and prestige with which nearly two 
centuries of custom had clothed the august person 
of the chief magistrate of Massachusetts.^ 

Hancock had now for nine years been the suc- 
cessor to a long and distinguished line of govern- 
ors and was the first in the new State as the 
successor to the Province, with little change in 
externals, when the newly elected President of the 
recently and loosely united States was approach- 

1 In a letter to General Washington General Lincoln discussed 
Hancock's chances for the Vice-Presidency: "Governor Hancock 
and Mr. John Adams are considered as the candidates for that 
office. . . . The latter in my opinion will be the man; for I 
cannot believe that the Governor would, under his present state of 
health, leave this government, even if he should be elected second 
in the new one." — Sparks' "Writings of Washington, Miscellane- 
ous Letters," ix, 557. 



First Constitutional Governor 295 

ing Boston with a retinue which now-a-days 
would not be considered as repubHcan in simpUcity.^ 
In addition to two secretaries and six servants 
deputations, military and civil, had furnished 
escort from the State border at Springfield through 
Worcester to Cambridge, where he was met by 
Samuel Adams and the Governor's Council at 
ten o'clock on Saturday, October 24, with an 
invitation to dine with Governor Hancock when 
he should reach Boston. On Washington's arriv- 
ing at the Neck he was met by the selectmen; 
but at the town hne where he expected to meet 
the Governor his excellency did not appear. There 
was an embarrassing delay for his possible arrival : 
the day was cold and raw ; his suite mounted and 

1 Hancock had entertained Lafayette on his triumphal progress 
through the country in 1784. After Washington had entered the 
State he received the following letter from Governor Hancock : — 

"Boston 21 October, 1789. 
"Sir, 

"Having received information that you intended to honor this 
State with a visit, and wishing personally to show you every mark 
of attention, which the most sincere friendship can induce, I beg 
the favor of your making my house the place of your residence 
while you remain in Boston. I could wish, that accommodations 
were better suited to a gentleman of your respectability, but you 
may be assured that nothing on my part shall be wanting to make 
them as agreeable as possible. 

"As governor of the commonwealth I feel it to be my duty to 
receive your visit with such tokens of respect, as may answer the 
expectations of my constituents, and may in some measure express 
the high sentiments of respect they feel towards you. I have 
therefore issued orders for proper escorts to attend you, etc. 
etc." — Sparks' "Writings of Washington," x, 48, 489. 



296 John Hancock 

waiting to enter the town. At length when it 
was reported that the Governor was not Hkely 
to show himself, the President inquired if there 
was no other road to xne town, and was about to 
turn back when he was informed that the munici- 
pal authorities were awaiting him. Out of respect 
to them he passed on between lines of citizens 
^* classed in their different professions and under 
their own banners," amidst acclamations of the 
people to the State House. There he asked if the 
Governor was in his room above ; because if he 
were he should not ascend the stairs. Being 
assured that he was not, he went up to the balcony, 
conducted by the Lieutenant-governor and council, 
saw the long procession pass, and then went to 
the lodgings secured for him ''at widow IngersoU's, 
which is a very decent and good house." Thither 
a messenger came from the Governor to say that 
dinner was waiting. He returned with a reply 
that the President would dine at his lodgings. 
Washington wrote in his diary : — 

"Having engaged yesterday to take an informal dinner 
with the Gov'r to-day, but under full persuasion that he 
should have waited upon me as soon as I should have arrived, 
I excused myself upon his not doing it, and informing me 
thro' his Secretary that he was too much indisposed to do 
it, being resolved to receive the visit. Dined at my lodgings 
where the Vice-President favored me with his company." ^ 

^ Hancock's rigid adherence to etiquette is mentioned in the 
Monroe Correspondence, "Bulletin of Rolls, Dept. of State," 
No. 2, 112. 



First Constitutional Governor 297 

When the populace understood the situation they 
voiced their resentment of this indignity towards 
the nation's head; for the town was strongly 
federal in its sentiments, and moreover it had not 
forgotten its deHverance from the British thirteen 
years before, as a panelled arch and canopy by 
the State House signified, bearing the inscription 
— ''Boston relieved March 17, 1776." The town 
would have been glad to entertain the President 
if it had not understood that the Governor claimed 
the honor. To have Washington dine at his 
lodgings mortified municipal pride, as reflecting 
upon its sense of honor and gratitude due to the 
beloved head of the nation. 

Hancock's popularity was in peril. By evening 
he knew that he must make amends to recover 
lost favor. Accordingly two members of his 
council were sent with explanations and apologies, 
saying in the Governor's behalf that he was not 
well; to which the President replied: "Gentlemen, 
I am a frank man and will be frank on this occasion. 
For myself, you will believe me, I do not regard 
ceremony ; but there is an etiquette due my office 
which I am not at liberty to waive. My claim to 
the attention that has been omitted rests upon 
the question whether the whole is greater than a 
part. I am told that the course taken has been 
designed, and that the subject was considered in 
Council." This was denied ; but it was admitted 
that it had been observed that the President of the 



298 John Hancock 

United States was one person and the ambassador 
of the French repubhc another. ''Why that re- 
mark, sir, if the subject was not before the Council ? 
This circumstance hasnDeen so disagreeable and 
mortifying, that I must say, notwithstanding all 
the marks of respect and affection received from 
the inhabitants of Boston, had I anticipated it, 
I would have avoided the place." 

Governor Hancock was then advised by his 
friends, after consultation on the matter by them, 
to reconsider his action and waive his view of 
etiquette ; whereupon he wrote : — 

''Sunday, 26 October, half past twelve o'clock. 
"The Governor's best respects to the President. If at 
home, and at leisure, the Governor will do himself the honor 
to pay his respects in half an hour. This would have been 
done much sooner, had his health in any degree permitted. 
He now hazards everything, as it respects his health, for 
the desirable purpose." 

To this Washington replied : — 

"Sunday, 26 October, one o'clock. 
"The President of the United States presents his best 
respects to the Governor, and has the honor to inform him 
that he shall be at home till two o'clock. The President 
needs not express the pleasure it will give him to see the 
Governor; but, at the same time, he most earnestly begs 
that the Governor will not hazard his health on the occasion." 

Swathed in red baize, Hancock rode in his coach 
to Washington's lodging house at the corner of 
Tremont and Court streets where he was borne 



First Constitutional Governor 299 

in the arms of attendants to the President's apart- 
ments. Washington accepted Hancock's invita- 
tion to dine with him ; also another from the 
State authorities to a pubHc dinner at which 
Hancock was not present; as he could not be 
consistently with his severe and dramatic attack 
of the gout. It had served him a good turn in 
covering his retreat from high official ground; 
which Washington had held on his part with equal 
tenacity on this and other occasions, as was his 
well-known custom. But having yielded to the 
clamor of the town at "the hazard of everything 
as it respects his health," Hancock evidently 
considered that he had discharged all official 
obligation.^ 

* Ford states that Washington sent Major Jackson with a 
note to Hancock saying that "if his health permitted him to re- 
ceive company, it would admit of his visiting the President ; " 
which hardly follows. He also terms this encounter "an amusing 
exchange of words." — "Writings of Washington," xi, 446, 
note. With more discrimination H. C. Lodge says that "it had 
a good deal more real importance than such points of etiquette 
generally possess." — "Historic Towns," — Boston,' p. 175. In 
Lodge's "Life of Washington" there is another account of this 
incident. Tudor in his "Life of Otis" ascribes it to the influence 
of men indiflferent or inimical to a federal government, and says 
that Hancock regretted his mistake and subsequently endeavored 
to remove the impression it created. 

"The two most prominent men in New England after the Vice 
President (John Adams) were John Hancock and Sam Adams. 
They were decided Republicans," — that is, as opposed to Fed- 
eralists, — "and so were almost all the distinguished talent of the 
Southern states and three quarters of the American people" — 
at the time of Hancock's death. — Randall's "Life of Jeflfer- 



300 John Hancock 

The entire episode would be amusing if it were 
merely a matter of personal etiquette between 
two gentlemen of the old school. Added to this, 
however, was the underlying sense of each as to 
what he represented. From Washington's view- 
point the aggregation of States was greater than 
one of them. Hancock regarded the age and 
stability and prestige of Massachusetts as superior 
to the "rope of sand" which held the new federa- 
tion together, or the untested chain whose weak 
links might soon be discovered. Or if he agreed 
with Washington that ''the whole is greater than 
a part," he had some reason to think that he had 
been overlooked a second time when the chief 
magistracy of the country had been given to 
eminence in arms rather than in civil affairs; as 
has happened after wars since the Revolution. 

In the instance of the first presidential election 
Washington's qualifications were so supreme that 
competition with the commander-in-chief would 
not have been thought of by any man of just self- 
estimation, or by any one who could rightly 
weigh the nation's general sentiments of gratitude 
and esteem. The verdict of time endorses the 
judgment of contemporaries that Washington was 
both a great general and a wise president, which 
cannot be said of some of his successors. 

son," II, 165, note. In 1785 "Mr. Hancock was talked of by the 
Southern States for President." — Calendar of Madison Corre- 
spondence, "Bulletin of the Bureau of Rolls," No. 4, pp. 33, 35. 



First Constitutional Governor 301 

This ceremonial episode does not appear to have 
permanently injured Governor Hancock's popu- 
larity. The ''Centinel" of that week coupled his 
name with Washington's in verse which ran: — 

"Thou, too, illustrious Hancock ! by his side 
In every lowering hour of danger tried ; 
With him conspicuous o'er the beamy page, 
Descend, the theme of every future age. 
When first the sword of early war we drew, 
The king, presaging, fixed his eye on you ; 
'Twas your dread finger pressed the sacred seal 
Whence rose to sovereign power the public weal ! " 

Poetry, truth, and praise are not without their 
drawbacks here; but doubtless they had their 
customary worth in a time when printed matter 
was accepted at its face value. Besides, the 
descendants of Puritans, like their forefathers, had 
a shamefaced fondness for poor verse if of domestic 
manufacture. For the standard foreign brands 
they had neither appreciation nor toleration.^ 

1 One Chapman Whitcomb was inspired to write a eulogy on 
Hancock in 1795 beginning : — 

"Jove armed with thunder, ne'er appeared so great." 

Benjamin Austin also apostrophized him in the style of his day. 
Both may be found in Loring's ''Hundred Boston Orators," 
p. 122. The wife of a Connecticut soldier also showed her appre- 
ciation when she named her triplet sons John Hancock, George 
Washington, and Charles Lee. — " Public Records of Connecticut," 
p. 430. 



CHAPTER XVIII 

TREASURER OF HARVARD COLLEGE 

In the diminution of his fortune and the increased 
outlay incident to the chief magistracy of Massa- 
chusetts Hancock wrote, on September 24, 1781, 
to Robert Morris, the financier of the Revolution, 
with regard to reimbursement for outlays attend- 
ing his presidency of Congress : — 

"Pray my friend, when will be the properest time for me 
to be considered for my expenses, while President of Con- 
gress ? They wrote me on the subject some two years ago, 
but I waived troubling them, knowing the delicacy of their 
situation. Indeed, I kept no account of my expenses ; nor 
had I time for it, as you well know how my time was en- 
grossed, and the labors and fatigue I underwent, and the 
expenses I must have necessarily incurred. I can speak 
plain to you ; confident I am that fifteen hundred pounds 
sterling would not amount to the expenses I incurred as 
president. In this I think I merit consideration, more 
especially as grants have been made to all my successors." 

It is not known that he ever received compensa- 
tion for his labors during the two and a half years 
of his service as President of the Continental 
Congress. It will do no harm to keep this in mind ; 
and particularly his statement that he kept no 
account of his expenses in the engrossment of his 



Treasurer of Harvard College 30;^ 

time amidst the labor and fatigue of his office, 
since what has been regarded as a sad derehction 
in a place of trust must not be passed over, as an 
instance of undertaking too many responsibilities 
at once. This may be an explanation; but it 
cannot serve as a justification of a course pursued 
for years which a resignation of the treasurership of 
Harvard College would have made impossible. 

As far back as 1773, in fulfilling the Kberal inten- 
tion of his uncle Thomas, and by adding something 
of his own, Hancock had gained the credit of being 
a generous benefactor to the college. The most 
popular man in the Province, wealthy, liberal, 
and patriotic, he was considered as a most desirable 
person to be connected with the monetary affairs 
of the institution. Its funds would be secured 
by his ample fortune ; his integrity was undoubted. 
But soon after his election it was discovered that 
these qualifications were not all that were required 
in a college treasurer at that time. Attention 
to business, and keeping accounts in such order 
that the condition of the treasury could be known 
on demand, were found to be of more consequence 
than personal riches and popularity. Neglect of 
those unpretentious virtues was as perilous as 
dishonesty. It was unfortunate for Harvard 
that the patriotism of its treasurer diverted his 
attention from its financial affairs to the larger 
sphere of congressional business. His own business 
was slack enough in the days of the Port Bill and 



304 John Hancock 

the siege ; but when he was elected President of 
Congress the concerns of the college doubtless 
seemed remote and infenor to those of the country 
at large, with its legislation and warfare. Account- 
ing for funds and paying salaries of college pro- 
fessors was a petty occupation compared with 
official correspondence, and presiding over a 
Congress which represented the whole country. 
He could have easily thrown off the lesser responsi- 
bihty, and the college stood ready to concur in 
a year after his appointment. His first mistake 
was in not disencumbering himself of this burden. 
That he did not do this was not for the lack of 
hints and requests. At an early day President 
Langdon, who had been elected by the Corporation 
at a meeting held at Hancock's house, wrote him 
urging the importance of an immediate statement 
and settlement. No answer was received to 
this suggestion. Two months later another ap- 
peal was sent with the same result. A third letter 
couched in the most considerate terms and en- 
treating a reply eHcited the information that "Mr. 
Hancock is busily engaged, and will soon appoint 
a day to attend to the business." Not appearing 
on the day appointed, he postponed the 'matter to 
the next week ; when he did not arrive. Another 
entreaty to settle before he should leave town, and 
to leave his accounts with college authorities, 
called out no reply. Then they voted that Colonel 
Hancock be requested to deliver moneys, bonds, 



Treasurer of Harvard College 305 

and other papers belonging to the college treasury 
into the hands of the President, or of others speci- 
fied, and take a receipt for the same. A messenger 
took this request, and Hancock could not escape 
returning something. It was the following letter : — 

"Mr. Hancock presents his compliments to the Rev. 
President, and the other gentlemen, who were present yes- 
terday at the meeting, and acquaints them, that he has at 
heart the interest of the College as much as any one, and will 
pursue it. He is much surprised and astonished at the con- 
tents of the President's letter, as well as at the doings of the 
gentlemen present, which he very seriously resents; and how- 
ever great the gentlemen may think the burden upon his 
mind may be, Mr. Hancock is not disposed to look upon 
it in that light, nor shall the College suffer any detriment, in 
his absence, as he has already determined those matters; 
but if the gentlemen choose to make a public choice of a gentle- 
man to the displacing him, they will please act their pleasure. 
Mr. Hancock writes in great hurry, being much engaged, 
but shall write very particularly, or be at Cambridge in 
person, as soon as the Congress rises; he leaves all his matters 
in the hands of a gentleman of approved integrity, during his 
absence, which he is not disposed to alter, and peradventure 
his absence may not be longer than a voyage to Machias. 

"Concord, 3 o'clock, p.m., ii April, 1775." 

In ten days he started for Philadelphia, and the 
Corporation was silenced for three-quarters of a 
year ; but they appointed the President receiver oi 
rents from their real estate, of legacies and dona- 
tions, and of the Charlestown ferry earnings; ^'the 
Treasurer having been long absent and there being 
no expectation of his speedy return." 



3o6 John Hancock 

Conditions becoming insupportable by March, 
1776, another supplicatory letter, begging "a 
moment's attention, reluctant to interrupt Mr. 
Hancock, engaged in momentous affairs, on which 
the salvation of the United Colonies depends, just 
to mention the difficulties of the seminary of learn- 
ing. " ... It was a humble and pitiful state- 
ment of ruin, defacement by troops, dispersion of 
students, with no income available, and no treas- 
urer to receive what Httle could be collected. No 
answer was received. Another month and another 
letter. Lame apologies were returned in three weeks, 
with the information that Mr. Hancock had sent 
a messenger to Boston to bring all the books and 
papers across the country to Philadelphia for his 
arrangement. By a shrewd suggestion he placed the 
responsiblity of requesting his resignation upon the 
College. With many obeisances they tried to throw 
this upon his sense of duty to the College and the 
country, with the possibiHty of reconcihng both; 
intimating as plainly as they dared their wish that 
he would resign. After three months a committee 
was appointed, which in a week evolved another 
letter that in seven weeks drew a reply which left 
them to consider further what to do with the 
evasive treasurer. They sent tutor Hall to Phila- 
delphia for the College papers. Two months after- 
ward these were in the Corporation's possession 
with bonds and other obligations amounting to 
£16,000. Then they were bold enough to vote, 



Treasurer of Harvard College 307 

after a complimentary preamble, that it was 
''highly expedient that another treasurer, who 
shall constantly reside within the State, be elected 
in the stead, or in the place of Mr. Hancock." But 
they were too timid to elect another until he should 
resign. Three meetings were held to prepare an 
answer to a letter which Hall brought with the 
securities. This reply consisted of twenty-eight 
pages of justification of the Corporation's action. 
Hancock took no notice of it or their vote. After 
three months more of waiting the authorities 
"proceeded to elect Ebenezer Storer, Esquire, in 
the room of the Honorable John Hancock"; who 
regarded this action as a personal affront and never 
forgave the Corporation. 

To conciHate him they entreated him to present 
his portrait, ''to be drawn at the expense of the 
Corporation and placed in the philosophy chamber 
by that of his honorable uncle." He took no 
notice of this compHment. He might have vanity 
in abundance; but it had been wounded too 
severely to rise to that lure. He had, moreover, 
a cash balance in his hands. After much soliciting 
by another committee, to no purpose, it was 
voted "to enter suit against the late Treasurer of 
Harvard College." The authorities hesitated 
and postponed action, and finally rescinded their 
vote. The College feared the Legislature, in which 
Hancock's influence was predominant, and his 
popularity undiminished. Another appeal was 



3o8 John Hancock 

unnoticed. Then came his election as Governor 
after these years of solicitation disregarded. In 
his inaugural address, 4P has been mentioned, he 
^'warmly commended Harvard College to the 
care and patronage of the legislature": and the 
Corporation manifested their gratitude by ex- 
pressing "their happiness that a gentleman is 
placed at the head of the General Court and of the 
Overseers, who has given such substantial evidence 
of his love of letters and affection to the College, by 
the generous and repeated benefactions, with which 
he hath endowed it." Honors were even now; 
but when as ex-ofhcio Chairman of the Board of 
Overseers he took his seat he made no answer to 
their mention that his accounts were still unsettled, 
nor to the repetition of it once and again. So 
requests and silences succeeded one another 
through five terms of governorship, until in his last 
one, when, giving notice of his intention to resign, 
he finally made a statement of his accounts, which 
he had withheld nearly eleven years from the first 
request by the Corporation in 1774. It then 
appeared that there was due from him to the 
College a balance of £1,054. But no payment 
was made. Two years afterward a letter was sent 
him saying that "the University could not subsist 
without receiving its interest money." He replied 
enigmatically, '' It is very well." More letters 
elicited promises to pay in a week, with repeated 
postponements and failures to pay. The last 



Treasurer of Harvard College 309 

promise was for January, 1793, to be unfulfilled. 
In October of that year he died, leaving the debt 
unpaid. Two years later his heirs paid nine years 
interest on the account, and in the course of six 
or seven years completed payment of the principal, 
but refused to pay compound interest, whereby 
the College lost upwards of five hundred and 
twenty-six dollars.^ 

The following letter is of interest as showing 
the efforts to restore friendly relations. 

"Boston, Oct'r 20 1783 
"Rev. Sir, 

"However illiberal the Treatment I have met with from 
some of the former and present Governors of the College has 
been it shall never operate in my mind to the Prejudice of 
the University at Cambridge. I most sincerely wish its 
Enlargement; the present appearance of those Buildings is 
very disagreeable for want of a reputable Inclosure, they 
must appear to a stranger as Buildings totally neglected 
& Deserted, instead of being improved for the noble purposes 
they are now Occupied. I wish to Remedy this inconven- 
ience, and have to Request (if worthy your notice) that you 
would be pleased to give orders to your College Corporation 
to erect a Respectable Fence around these Buildings, such 
an one as shall not Disgrace the Buildings, & such an one 
as shall be pointed out to them by your self & Doctor Cooper, 
whose Instructions they are to follow, & upon your Signify- 
ing the Corporation of the Business, & Transmitting to me 
the Bill of its amount, it shall meet with immediate Pay- 
ment. 

^ The author's special acknowledgments are due to the Libra- 
rian of Harvard University for access to available originals of 
this correspondence in the Archives of the University. 



3IO John Hancock 

"My best wishes for your prosperity & that of the Univer- 
sity under your Charge concludes me Rev. Sir, 
"Your very hum, Serv't 
^ "John Hancock. 
"Rev. Mr. President Willard." 

To this offer President Willard replied three 
months later, referring the whole matter of the 
fence to Governor Hancock, " to direct every thing 
agreeably to his taste which, I am confident will 
strike the taste of every judge of architecture." 

Two years later President Willard explained at 
length that he did not intend to treat the Gov- 
ernor with disrespect in assigning him a seat on 
the occasion of the dinner in honor of l^Iarquis de 
la Fayette '' who was seated below the President 
on the same bench — the third place — and your 
Excellency directly opposite — the second place.'* 

Cordial understanding appears to have been re- 
stored by 1 791 when 

"President Willard returns his most respectful compli- 
ments to his Excellency the Governor, with his best thanks 
for his very generous and acceptable present of Madeira 
and a quarter cask of Sherry wine and two large loaves of 
sugar. The President wishes it was in his power more fully to 
express his feelings of gratitude to the Governor for his 
munificence and kindness." ^ 

At a distance of a hundred and nineteen years 

from its close the whole transaction looks like an 

instance of financial irregularity through absence, 

and pressure of more important affairs, with con- 

* Ms. "Archives of Harvard University." 



Treasurer of Harvard College 3 1 1 

tinned postponement of an evil day of settlement. 
That there was premeditated purpose to use the 
funds of the College, or if used never to repay 
them, would be the worst interpretation that can 
be put upon the attitude of Governor Hancock 
toward his alma mater. After reading President 
Josiah Quincy's detailed account in his "History of 
Harvard College " of the long negotiation, of which 
a brief abstract has been given above, it seems 
uncharitable to insist that fraud was intended. 
But Hancock's gross inattention to a trust that 
had been committed to him, coupled with an 
uncivil neglect to reply to most courteous requests 
for information, and finally for relief by transfer of 
the office to another, is beyond apology and without 
excuse, although a partial explanation may be 
found in his undertaking too much business and 
in the wilHngness to hold too many offices and a 
reluctance to surrender any one of accumulated 
honors. Still, the explanation does not contain 
the essential elements of an excuse or even an 
apology. 

There is, however, one circumstance in this 
chapter of Hancock's history that is so unaccount- 
able that it cannot be passed over without mention. 
The writer of ten letters of detraction over the 
signature of *'Laco," in the year 1789, for some 
reason failed to take up the most important and 
damaging charge that he might have used against 
the re-election of Hancock that year. He accused 



312 John Hancock 

him of vanity, caprice, extravagance, social dissi- 
pation, pliancy, timidity, lack of statesmanship, 
favoritism, abuse of prerogative, and other faults 
which had their valued a campaign document, 
but not a word about his delinquencies as Treasurer 
of Harvard. Such silence is almost equivalent 
to an enemy's praise. So also Governor Hutchin- 
son, who could not be expected to favor Hancock, 
defended him before the king, who had received 
impressions of financial irregularity among other 
evil reports about the arch rebel. And if Samuel 
Adams had been disposed to make capital out of 
Hancock's delinquency, as he was not, there was 
a restraining paragraph in the Town Records read- 
ing : "We also find that there still remains to be 
paid into the Province Treasury on account of Mr. 
Samuel Adams the Sum of Fifty Pounds, and from 
the Information given us by Mr. Robert Pierpont 
it appears that there is no probability that any part 
of the Sum of £1149, 9, 01 remaining unpaid of 
Mr. Adams' Debt to the Town will ever be received 
and paid into the Treasury." ^ Thomas Gushing, 
Esq., and John Ruddock, Esq., also owed £155 
and £82 respectively on account of a lottery author- 
ized by the General Court. Perhaps the quantity 
of glass in some houses did not encourage stone- 
throwing at Hancock. 
In any case, Harvard misdemeanors do not 

* "Boston Town Records," 1772, p. 69. 



Treasurer of Harvard College 3 1 3 

appear to have affected his popularity with the 
people of Massachusetts, who continued to elect 
him as their chief magistrate year after year. 
It is also probable that the College, knowing its 
dependence upon the General Court, and having a 
prudent sense of the Governor's influence with that 
body, kept as quiet about his mismanagement as 
circumstances would permit. There was a final 
interchange of compliments when at the installa- 
tion of President Willard Governor Hancock called 
the College *'in some sense the parent and nurse of 
the late happy Revolution," and the Corporation 
termed him "an affectionate and liberal son." To 
which the historian of this affair adds, that *' Han- 
cock's polished manners, wealth, and liberahty, 
and patriotism had rendered him the most popular 
man in the province." Some, however, have not 
yet forgiven him after a hundred and nineteen 
years, and much of existing prejudice against him 
can be attributed to this unfortunate part of his 
career. 



CHAPTER XIX 

LAST YEARS 

While Governor Hancock magnified his office 
and the rights of a State which had been foremost 
in the Revolution, and sometimes betrayed a 
lurking fear that the general government might 
assume undue power, he was not so backward in 
his support of the federal constitution and govern- 
ment as some of his political associates were. 
Contending for powers of the States which had 
not been clearly delegated to Congress, he also 
kept in mind the authority that had been conceded 
to the nation. ''We shall best support the federal 
system by maintaining the constitution and 
government of our own State. The federal govern- 
ment must stand or fall with the State govern- 
ments. If the federal government absorbs the 
powers of the State governments, it will become 
a different system from what it was intended. To 
maintain it, as it now is, will be best effected by 
preserving the State governments in all their just 
authority." Yet it was hard to look beyond his 
own province, notwithstanding whatever broaden- 
ing influences he might have met in his terms in 
Congress. Much that he heard there was of 



Last Years 315 

States' rights, and little of their obhgations or 
concessions. It is not strange therefore that his 
federal sympathies, though broad for his day, were 
subordinate to his sense of the prerogatives of the 
Commonwealth of Massachusetts, and by conse- 
quence of the other Commonwealths. The nation 
was to be built upon thirteen separate and distinct 
pillars. It might hold them together; it must not 
fuse them into one pillar. 

In one respect a new cause of difference and 
ahenation was already beginning to arise and to 
emphasize the doctrine of States' rights as opposed 
to national uniformity. It began in Massachusetts 
when African slavery was abolished at the adoption 
of its constitution. All the colonies had been en- 
couraged by the home government to pursue the 
profitable trade in rum for negroes on the Guinea 
Coast. Royal governors were instructed to nega- 
tive bills passed by legislatures for the suppression 
of this trade, in which the nobihty and the king 
himself had a profitable interest. Still, despite 
court example and control, the colonial conscience 
was uneasy in the North and frequently in the 
South, and strong protests were uttered by leading 
statesmen. The unprofitableness of the system was 
everywhere notorious, and might have ultimately 
destroyed it, had not the invention of the cotton gin 
increased the profits of slave labor marvellously, 
and in consequence mightily reinforced southern 
sentiment in favor of perpetuating it. Northern 



316 John Hancock 

States one after anot]^ followed the example of 
Massachusetts until, on a question which eventu- 
ally would broaden into a wide gulf between 
the two sections, the difference of opinion was 
already beginning to divide the colonies into 
two groups, and even communities and families in 
each. 

Hancock did not become blind to the evil of 
slavery, as some of his successors did through 
familiarity with its sunny side. He had as keen a 
sense as some early southern statesmen had of the 
cancerous germ which the fathers knew they 
were leaving in the Constitution, hoping that it 
would disappear with the growth of the nation. 
Massachusetts did not wait for it to die; but in 
Hancock's administration and with his recommen- 
dation and endorsement continued a reform which, 
if it had been universally effected, would have 
saved the nation from the dire calamity of civil 
war eighty years afterward.^ 

In minor ethics he was equally conscientious, 
sometimes surpassing his associates. Notwith- 
standing the relief afforded by the federal govern- 

1 In February, 1788, three negroes were decoyed on board a 
vessel in Boston harbor and carried to the West Indies, where 
they were sold into slavery. Subsequently, in consequence of the 
intervention of Governor Hancock and the French consul at 
Boston, they were released and brought back to Massachusetts. 
— 6 "Mass. Hist. Soc. Coll." iv, 126. Illuminating material on 
slaveholding in colonial Boston can be found in "Dealings with 
the Dead," i, 152, and in Graham's "Hist. U. S." iv, 340. 



Last Years 317 

ment in assuming State debts, the taxes in Massa- 
chusetts were high, and with unpaid accumulations 
from former years to be provided for. Governor 
Hancock's poHcy of forbearance in the early eighties 
had doubtless' saved the State from despair if not 
from anarchy; but when the proposed sale of 
Maine lands for rehef was abandoned as a failure, 
the Legislature consented to a lottery for the pur- 
pose of raising money for the necessities of the State, 
in a time when even religious societies held left 
hands beliind them for aid through such doubtful 
expedients. The Governor wisely and firmly dis- 
approved of descending to enHst gambling methods 
for upholding the credit of the commonwealth, 
and the Legislature soon came to be convinced of 
the impoHcy of the scheme. 

In what was then regarded by many as an equally 
unbecoming matter he displayed even greater zeal; 
an inheritance from a Puritan past, which one 
would hardly look for in the society leader on 
Beacon Hill. An old law against theatres stood 
on the statute-book, enacted in imitation of Crom- 
well's ordinance of 1642, annulled in England 
fourteen years later. Yet in Massachusetts players 
appeared on the stage at the risk of arrest. In 1791 
sundry respectable citizens of Boston made efforts 
to get this old statute repealed, urging that it 
would be easy to select harmless plays for a ''liter- 
ary and elegant entertainment"; but other in- 
habitants of equally high standing protested. On 



318 John Hancock 

one December evening a ''Moral Lecture," en- 
titled, "The True-born Irishman," was advertised 
to follow "Feats on the Tight Rope at the New 
England Exhibition Room, Board Alley." There 
was also a commendable attempt to introduce the 
classic drama into the modern Athens. An un- 
looked for feature was presented when the Sheriff 
of Suffolk County unceremoniously stepped forth 
on the stage in the scene of Bosworth Field in 
"Richard the Third" and made prisoner the hump- 
back tyrant, threatening also to arrest the entire 
company unless the performance ceased forthwith. 
Endicott had come back to Boston. Loud calls 
to proceed with the play were useless with Richard 
in the Sheriff's hands. Governor Hancock's por- 
trait had been hung in front of the stage box, 
possibly as a sop to Cerberus. In a twinkling it 
fell under the feet of disappointed playgoers, and the 
handsome visage was disfigured beyond that of the 
original Richard himself. At the examination 
of this worthy's representative in Faneuil Hall the 
attorney-general read a special order for his arrest 
from Governor Hancock. Harrison Gray Otis 
defended the King, objecting to the legaHty of 
the warrant, issued as it was without complaint 
being made upon oath. The justices acceded, 
and the prisoner was discharged. His name was 
Harper, a proto-martyr to the dramatic art; 
whose interruption and detention made for the 
abolition of an unpopular statute on the last day of 



Last Years 319 

1792. A building for stage plays was soon after 
erected on Federal Street.^ 

Another law, enacted in the Puritan age and 
rigorously enforced, for the observance of the 
Lord's Day, was also revived in Hancock's adminis- 
tration. War, as usual, had been followed by a 
laxity in this respect, and legislation was invoked 
to restore in a measure former strictness of observ- 
ance. The new law was not so severe in its 
penalties as the old, nor in its provisions; as for 
instance, that there should be no osculatory greet- 
ings in famihes on that day; but it did forbid 
travelKng for business or pleasure, and all rec- 
reation.^ Perhaps the governor in approving this 
enactment recalled his own arrest one Sunday in a 
former year for taking a turn on the Common as he 

* On October 12, 1778, Congress had recommended to the sev- 
eral States "To take the most eflfectual measures for suppressing 
theatrical entertainments, horse racing, gaming, and such other 
diversions as are productive of idleness, dissipation, and a general 
depravity of principles and manners." — "Journal of Congress," 
III, 785. 

2 Hancock had diversions becoming his age and position ; as 
when on the 23d of October, 1792, he attended a meeting of the 
Massachusetts Historical Society to commemorate the completion 
of the third century after the discovery of America, "when the 
memory of Columbus was toasted in convivial enjoyment at the 
dinner table of Hon. James Sullivan, President." — "Mass. Hist. 
Soc. Proc," I, 45, note. 

On Tuesday, January 22, 1795, sixteen months after her hus- 
band's death, it is recorded that "Mrs. Hancock presented the 
Society with a Fungus and a piece of petrified clay." — 76., 
p. 84. 



320 John Hancock 

was coming from churafc It was too late to bring 
back the Hebraic code of the preceding century, 
and prohibition in this instance as in others did not 
prevent a growing license. Traditional respect was 
stronger than statutes, and in the main Sunday was 
well observed for three-quarters of a century, until a 
greater war entailed greater looseness of observance, 
to which certain well-known diversions have con- 
tributed. 

For his own dehberate and unhasting age Han- 
cock had not led a sluggish existence; and his 
labors and his mode of Hving together had been 
sapping a not over-strong constitution before he 
had rounded out half a century. He had not been 
without his troubles and sorrows. The infant 
daughter had died, as has been mentioned, in her 
first summer, and in 1787 the son in his ninth year 
met with a fatal accident while skating. Then 
there was always the customary amount of political 
criticism, to which Hancock might have been less 
sensitive than a less generally approved man, 
provided it were not as blunt as this: ^'J. H. the 
first magistrate ; who is acquainted with no branch 
of science at all, not even government, in which 
he should have been fit for the station he un- 
worthily occupies." ^ And Rev. Dr. William Gor- 
don, pastor of a church to which Hancock had 
made many gifts, so sharply criticised his bene- 

1 Samuel Dexter to John Temple, in 7 "Mass. Hist. Soc. Proc." 
VI, 28. 



Last Years 321 

factor that the governor gave up his summer resi- 
dence in Jamaica Plain. ^ 

Since his resumption of the governorship in 1788 
his health had decHned; still he kept up a brave 
fight in a critical time for the principles which 
he deemed vital to the welfare of the common- 
wealth. His last public efforts were for the defence 
of its sovereignty, and his final appearance as 
chief magistrate was before the Legislature in the 
afternoon of September 18, 1793, in the old State 
House, whither he was brought, attended by 
Secretary Avery and Sheriff Allen. On taking his 
official chair he informed the assembly that his 
infirm health would not permit him to address 
them personally, and he begged them to be seated 
while the Secretary of State read his address, as 
it would be impossible for him to speak so as to 
be heard. He had summoned a special session of 
the General Court to consider a suit at law which 
had been instituted in the federal court by one 
Vassal, an alien, against the Commonwealth of 
Massachusetts. The Governor and the attorney- 
general as the principal citizens of the State had 
received a summons as defendants. The first 
question to be decided was with regard to the sua- 
bility of a sovereign State. In his message the 
Governor had given it as his opinion that the 
State could not be compelled to answer to a civil 

^ H. M. Whitcomb's ''Annals and Reminiscences of Jamaica 
Plain." 



222 John Hancock 

suit, as it would be utiRrly incompatible with its 
sovereignty. ''He could not conceive, when the 
Constitution was adopted, that it was expected 
by the people that a State should be held to answer 
on compulsory civil process to any individual." 

The subject was discussed for several days, when 
a vote was passed, one hundred and seven to nine- 
teen, supporting the opinion of the Governor, in 
these words : ''Resolved, That a power claimed of 
compelling a State to become a defendant in a court 
of the United States, at the suit of an individual 
or individuals, is unnecessary and inexpedient ; and 
in its exercise dangerous to the peace, safety, and 
independence of the several states, and repugnant 
to the first principles of a federal government." 
The State delegates in Congress were instructed to 
obtain an amendment to the Constitution embody- 
ing the sense of the above resolution. In conse- 
quence, an article was soon added denying the 
authority of the United States Court to oblige a 
State to answer before it to the civil suit of citizens 
of another State. It was a bold measure, but in 
accord with the sentiments of a people who had 
not fully adopted the idea of a national or consoli- *^ 
dated government. The entire action bordered 
on a refusal to obey its authority when as yet an 
appeal to the States for their concurrence had not 
been made. State sovereignty was still in the 
governor's mind, and his last fight was for its 
maintenari;:c' ; in wliich he achieved a greater success 



Last Years 323 

for Massachusetts and all the States than he lived 
to see. 

When the Secretary had finished reading the 
address to the Legislature the Governor added: 
''I rely upon your candor to pardon this mode 
of addressing you. I feel the seeds of mortahty 
growing fast within me. But I think I have, in 
this case, done no more than my duty, as a servant of 
the people . I never did and I never will deceive them 
while I have life and strength to act in their service." 

The assembly arose as the Governor was con- 
veyed to his carriage and taken home, never again 
to appear in public. He died three weeks later of 
gout and exhaustion, October 8, 1793, in the 
fifty-seventh year of his age. 

For a week citizens from all parts of the State 
came by thousands to pay tributes of respect to 
his memory. On the i6th a procession a mile and 
a half long followed the body to the Granary 
Burying-ground. A funeral escort under command 
of Brigadier- General Hull consisted of Officers of 
the Militia, Justices of the Peace, Judges of Pro- 
bate, the Attorney- General, Justices of the Supreme 
Court, members of the Legislature and Council, 
and the Lieutenant-governor. Six of the oldest 
Councillors were the pall-bearers. After these 
followed relatives, the Vice-President of the 
United States, and members of Congress; Judges 
and Secretaries, former Councillors and Senators 
of Massachusetts ; the President, Corporation, and 



324 John Hancock 

Professors of Harvard College ; Selectmen and 
Town Clerk of Boston, with other town officers; 
Clergymen, members of the Ancient and Honorable 
Artillery Company, a Committee of the Brattle 
Street Church, of which the deceased had been a 
member. Citizens and visitors completed the 
procession, which moved from ''the Mansion House 
of the late Governor, across the Common and down 
Frog Lane [now Boylston Street] to Liberty Pole, 
through the Main Street, and round the State 
House, up Court Street — and from thence to the 
place of interment." 

A conspicuous person in this procession was 
Samuel Adams, who was obliged to withdraw from 
it at State Street on account of faiHng strength. 
When the General Court assembled in the following 
January he opened his address as Lieutenant- 
governor with these words : — 

"It having pleased the Supreme Being, since your last 
meeting, in his holy Providence to remove from this transi- 
tory life our late excellent Governor Hancock, the multi- 
tude of his surviving fellow-citizens, who have often given 
strong testimonials of their approbation of his important 
services, while they drop a tear, may certainly profit by the 
recollection of his virtuous and patriotic example." 

With this moderate eulogy he proceeded to the 
affairs before the Legislature. 

The Rev. Dr. Thacher, Hancock's pastor, 
preached a sermon with fuller appreciation on the 
29th of October in the Brattle Street Church, three 



Last Years 325 

weeks after the Governor's death. It has peculiar 
value as testimony to the character of the sub- 
ject, coming as it did from an intimate associate 
in the affairs of the parish and the town and based 
upon general opinion as well as his own. After 
the custom of the time, and as in his memorial 
discourses in the instances of Gk)vernors Bowdoin 
and Samuel Adams, the sermon is so long as to 
forbid entire quotation. Disconnected sentences 
must stand for the sentiments of the whole. 

"It is difficult to draw the character of a man in a station 
so elevated without being charged with partiality, and 
with a disposition to flatter the dead, or gratify the living. 
But think not that I shall attempt to describe this great 
man as a character absolutely perfect, for perfection is 
not the lot of humanity, and to ascribe it to the best of 
men must prove a want of sincerity or knowledge. Let his 
failings, for which charity will furnish many apologies, 
be buried with him. 

"Governor Hancock was formed by nature to act a 
brilliant part in the world. His abilities were of the kind 
which strike, astonish and please. They were highly 
respectable, and were cultivated by education, travel, and 
the conversation of safe and good men. Coming into 
possession of a fortune superior to any which our part 
of America had then known, his friends viewed him with 
anxiety; they feared that he would be drawn into the 
vortex of dissipation. They were pleased when they 
found him taking a different turn, wishing to acquire the 
esteem and confidence of men of character, and appearing 
as the friend and asserter of the liberties of his country. 
His patriotism and his amiable popular manners rendered 
him the idol of his fellow citizens ; they loved his very 



326 John Hancock 



name and early showered i^piDn him their best honors. 
No man before him ever possessed such a command of 
their affections. They loved him because he espoused 
their cause and aimed at their interest. His name and influ- 
ence were of the highest importance to the common cause. 

''He was eloquent and spoke with ease and propriety; 
his manners were graceful, and he had a peculiar talent 
of presiding with dignity at the head of a deliberative 
body : every individual supposed himself to be particularly 
noticed and favored. When at his own request he was 
released from the fatigues of Congress he was received 
with former affection and experienced former confidence 
by the people of Massachussetts when they called him to 
be the first Governor under our present constitution. Such 
distinction is seldom placed in the same man, but Mr. 
Hancock never lost the popular affection. He was also 
a firm friend to the independence and happiness of united 
America. He gave his decided influence in favor of the 
federal constitution, and did then perhaps as much service 
to his country as when he consented to its independence. 

"To this may be added his munificence. Perhaps there 
is not a person in America who has done more generous 
and noble actions or contributed more liberally to pubHc 
institutions. His acts of charity of a more private nature 
were numerous and constant. The poor, the widow, the 
fatherless, the unhappy debtor, the prisoner, the decayed 
gentleman, all experienced his bounty. The sums which 
he gave away would scarcely be credited. 

"His reverence for religion was never lost. He was 
interested in every thing that related to the house of God. 
He exceeded his worthy ancestors in his liberality to this 
society and proved his real attachment to our peace and 
happiness. It might have been said of him as of the cen- 
turion by the Jews, ' He loved our nation and hath built us 
a synagogue. ^ " 



Last Years 327 

It is on record that the expenses of the governor's 
funeral were not paid by the State but from the 
estate of the chief magistrate himself, who, un- 
like the Commonwealth, was not burdened with 
debts, although his fortune had been greatly 
impaired by the stringency of the time.^ 

One hundred years after his death the Legisla- 
ture of Massachusetts on February 3, 1894, coming 
to a sense of the obscurity in which John Hancock 
had Iain for a century, passed this resolution : — 

"Resolved, that there be allowed and paid out of the 
treasury of the Commonwealth a sum not exceeding three 
thousand dollars, to be expended under the direction of 
the Governor and Council, for the purpose of erecting a 
suitable memorial over the grave of Gov. John Hancock 
in the Granary Burying-ground in Boston." 

When the monument was placed a service of 
dedication was held on September 10, 1896 : the 
shaft being unveiled by a great-grand-niece. Miss 

* "Shabby Commonwealth!! thus early in your career you 
exemplified the old saying, that the State can do no wrong, and 
that the dead have no rights that the living are bound to respect. 
You took advantage of Madam's lack of business experience and 
training, and defrauded her of the funeral expenses, amounting to 
eighteen himdred dollars, in a manner that, however pleasing to 
King George the Third, he would not have been guilty of, and your 
example would have made even Becky Sharp turn green with 
envy." — Joseph Henry Curtis's "Life of Campestris Ulm," p. 37. 
A charge of vandalism was brought against Massachusetts for 
the destruction of the Hancock mansion in 1863 after a failure to 
purchase it in 1859, or to accept it later when offered to Boston as 
a gift. See the "Bulletin of the Society for the Preservation of 
N. E. Antiquities," May, 1910. 



328 John Hancock 

Mary Elizabeth Wood^as there was no direct 
descendant of John Hancock. On account of the rain 
that afternoon the service was continued in the Park 
Street Church, at which Governor Wolcott said : — 

"It has long been a matter of comment, and possibly 
of regret to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, that the 
grave of her first governor, a man who played so large a 
part in the Revolutionary period, remained in the heart 
of the principal city of the Commonwealth unmarked by 
any enduring monument. ^ 

"It will be one of those spots to which the feet of pilgrims 
will be directed. It will be one of the memories which those 
who visit us from other States or other countries will bear 
away with them from historic Boston and historic Massa- 
chusetts, and as the hurrying crowd passes by the side- 
walk, I hope that it will speak eloquently for all years to 
come of patriotic and loyal service to the Commonwealth." 

In his speech accepting the monument in behalf 
of the State he said : — 

"As we look back upon that period of the revolution, 
to the events that led up to it, there is one figure, among 
others, that stands with peculiar significance to the public 
mind. That figure is John Hancock. A man of dignity 
of presence, fond of elaborate ceremonial, elegant in his 
attire, courtly in his manner, a man of education and great 
wealth for that time, and a man who threw himself heart 
and soul into the patriotic duties of the hour. I think we 
especially connect his name and memory with three acts. 
In the first place, we remember that in the proclamation 
of amnesty there were two names excepted; one was that 
of John Hancock, the other that of Samuel Adams. We 

1 "No. 16, Tomb of Hancock," was all that marked the patriot's 
resting place for a century. 



Last Years 329 

remember that when Paul Revere rode out into Middlesex 
County to warn the farmers of the approach of British 
troops, John Hancock and Samuel Adams were slumbering 
quietly in the little village of Lexington, and that their cap- 
ture was accounted as important to the British cause as 
the capture or destruction of the ammunition which they 
were sent out to seize. 

'* We especially remember John Hancock again as presi- 
dent of the Continental Congress, and as the first to sign, in 
his bold, fine signature, his name to that immortal declara- 
tion, in which those who signed it pledged their lives, their 
fortunes, and their sacred honor to the cause of liberty." 

Of Mrs. Hancock it remains to be said that 
on July 28, 1796, she married Captain James 
Scott, who was a trusted ship-master long in the 
employ of her first husband. She outlived the 
second many years, residing for a time at Ports- 
mouth, New Hampshire, and afterward at No. 4 
Federal Street, Boston, where her hospitality was 
enlivened by her remarkable memory and bril- 
Kant conversation. When Lafayette was in the 
coxmtry in 1825 they recalled together the scenes 
of fifty years before, when in younger days they 
could not foresee the fulfilment of their hopes. 
She could recollect the personal appearance and 
manners of British ofiicers quartered in Boston, 
of whom Earl Percy seems to have made the most 
favorable impression, since, accustomed to the 
luxuries of Warkworth Castle, his Northumber- 
land home, he slept among his troops in a tent 
on the Conmion during the winter of 1774-5, 



330 John Hancock 

and drilled the regulars#Pt dawn not far from the 
Hancock mansion.^ He did not advance far 
enough toward Lexington on the next 19th of 
April, when he covered the disastrous retreat, for 
Dorothy Quincy to catch one more glimpse of 
him before she was withdrawn from all further 
visual admiration of the fascinating Earl to Con- 
necticut Fairfield and the equally attractive Aaron 
Burr. It is not strange that Hancock had his 
hours of solicitude in his lodgings at Philadelphia 
until the August wedding-day. On her part it 
seems to have been an instance of love after 
marriage. When in old age she was compli- 
mented on her good looks, she would laughingly 
reply, ''What you say is more than half a hun- 
dred years old. My ears remember it ; but what 
were dimples once are wrinkles now." To the end 
however, she was as attentive to her attire as in 
early years, and had no patience with a young girl 
who did not dress to please, nor with one who was 
vain of her clothes. Madam Scott died in Boston 
on February 3, 1830, in her eighty-fourth year.^ 

^ It has been said that Mrs. Hancock extended courtesies to 
the ofiScers' ladies of Burgoyne's army at Cambridge after its 
defeat, and that these attentions were gratefully received and 
long remembered. — Loring's " Hundred Orators," p. 107. 

For social amenities at the Hancock mansion see the " Trans- 
actions of the Colonial Society of Mass.," vi, 317. 

2 Reminiscences of her life with her first husband, John Hancock, 
were given in 1822 to General WiUiam H. Sumner and were pub- 
lished by him in the New England Historical and Genealogical 
Register for April, 1854, vol. vm, 187. 



CHAPTER XX 

AN ESTIMATE 

In asking what place John Hancock occupied 
in his day, and what values he represents in Ameri- 
can history, two factors must be considered which 
determine the character, conduct, and achieve- 
ment of men of distinction who are not geniuses, 
and therefore to be accounted for by their heredity 
and environment. 

Whatever value is attached to the doctrine of 
heredity, it will be allowed that inheritances of 
disposition from progenitors are a large part of 
the capital with which a child starts in life. In 
this instance a reputed descent from remote an- 
cestors in Ireland has been claimed, and the 
possible persistence of sundry Celtic traits is illus- 
trated by well-known characteristics. These, how- 
ever, had lived on amidst the chilly influences of 
the Puritan age until they were stiffened into 
habits and principles unlike their original form and 
spirit. A love of leadership, for instance, had 
hardened into a grandfather's dominating temper, 
to be softened in the grandson into a harmless 
desire to be foremost in the procession, with the 



332 John Hancock 

notoriety which that yRd of precedence bestows. 
Sometimes the professional accretion of an over- 
lord spirit from the period of a magisterial ministry 
cropped out when circumstances favored, but 
there was no desperate fight to win and keep 
preeminence, such as Samuel Adams maintained 
until his main purpose was accompHshed. Still, 
Hancock had no faculty of keeping in the back- 
ground, such as the retiring but able Hawley had ; 
a man who would have outrun all radicals if a 
native modesty and a singular disposition had not 
marred his efficiency. No self-depreciation re- 
strained Hancock when his services or presence 
were needed. If modesty is a fault, as some hold, 
he was blameless in that respect. If generous 
appreciation of one's self is a helpful quaUty in the 
daily struggle, he found this gift a sustaining power 
in a time when every ally was needed. Confidence 
in himself gave him good hope for the cause which 
had him for one of its foremost champions. Be- 
cause he himself had espoused it, there was no 
question in his mind of its worthiness. The right 
would prevail eventually, and no later on account 
of his own attitude towards it. Such conscious- 
ness affords great comfort to its possessor, and 
moreover radiates abundant cheer in a time when 
uncertainty and doubt, misgiving and fear pre- 
vail. Courage, determination, and zeal accom- 
plish wonders; but an added assurance and a 
confident front are often the stay of those who 



An Estimate 333 

look to their leaders to do their thinking, and to 
their watchmen to tell them of the night and of the 
morning. If half the victory is in believing that 
it can be won, there is always some one to win the 
other half. 

But Hancock was not all conceit. It is the 
habit of his detractors to put uppermost this 
amusing, but harmless and sometimes useful, de- 
fect, thus overclouding his sterKng quahties. Be- 
cause he was vain, he could therefore be nothing 
else, is poor logic. As well say, because he was 
handsome he had no courage, generosity, and 
sympathy: or because he loved official station 
therefore he was not an admirable occupant of 
it. Let his well-known kindness to the poor and 
his benevolence to the pubHc refute the first sup- 
position, and repeated re-elections deny the second. 
Instead, his generous gifts overbalanced what- 
ever publicity they unavoidably gained in a time 
when the left hand could not fail to know what the 
right hand did, especially when both were extended 
in benefaction. To the hundred thousand dollars 
which it is estimated he contributed or sacrificed 
to the cause of liberty, might be added an unstinted 
hospitality toward all classes in several ways, often 
in the name and to the honor of the town of which 
he was a citizen. To the churches he was equally 
well disposed, as in the gift of a thousand pounds 
sterling to the building of the Brattle Street Church, 
of which he was a member, with the addition of 



334 John Hancock 

pulpit furniture and a b^ ; also of similar gifts at 
Jamaica Plain, his summer resort. To the poor 
he gave freely, especially in a time of distress 
when want was at every door where there was not 
a competence within. 

His patriotism is so often assumed to be a matter 
of course, and as something which should belong 
to all Americans, that it is not always remembered 
what an unusual and exceptional occurrence it was 
for a prominent citizen of Boston to join the move- 
ment against the established government in the 
beginning of the revolt. Its early promoters from 
the docks, shops, and shipyards, who had not much 
to lose, did not attract many substantial merchants, 
salaried judges, and government officials who were 
content to let well-enough alone, and who consid- 
ered the outcome as exceedingly uncertain long 
after the war broke out. Nor does it so much mat- 
ter by what persuasions Hancock was induced to 
throw himself into the movement at first as that 
he did it in the face of considerations which kept 
most of his circle out of it at the time. If no aris- 
tocrat had joined the laboring classes whose ma- 
jorities Samuel Adams was swelling by speeches, 
newspaper articles, and oftener by personal talk, 
the cause would have received tardier support. 
The surprise of great houses on the hillsides and 
of their heads at the Royal Exchange must have 
been genuine when the richest man of them all 
broke away from the ingrained and inherited loy- 



An Estimate 335 

alty of a hundred and fifty years to join the dis- 
contented rabble, always ready for any change, 
and easily led by the man who dares, having only 
his voice to contribute to the cause. Hancock 
and his neighbors had warehouses and foreign 
trade, respectabihty and social standing, with the 
stability and prosperity of the existing order, and 
the conservatism natural to the English race, with 
its divine right of grumbling at present evils and 
its dogged pertinacity in keeping them sacred up 
to the point of explosion. The best in Boston did 
not admit that they had reached that point even 
after Gage invested the town. Those who have 
a century and a third of independence behind them 
cannot easily understand such devotion to British 
authority in all matters ; but they who had a cen- 
tury and a half of home government back of them, 
and a thousand years of its traditions beyond that, 
could not comprehend that the untried new would 
be better than the old with all the faults they had 
condoned or been half proud of. The new king 
was arbitrary without doubt, but his best men were 
not; and they were slowly warping the Hano- 
verian hulk into the current again. If British 
generals and admirals would show pluck enough 
to suppress rope-spinners, ship carpenters, and 
shopmen, and have wit enough to catch Sam 
Adams, and get Hancock made a peer of the realm, 
time and mortality would adjust all temporary 
ills, and prosperity would return with ships from 



336 John Hancock 

every port. So reason^ the aristocrats of Bos- 
ton. 

Hancock's defection from the coterie of merchant 
princes and their policy was unaccountable to 
them. What could radical rebels promise him 
besides the companionship that misery loves? 
This was the talk of the majority in the lordly 
mansions which looked out on the harbor from the 
garden slopes that faced it. Hancock himself had 
been familiar with loyal sentiments in his uncle's 
house. Was he so distressed by imposts and navi- 
gation acts beyond all others that he would better 
his trade by rebelHon; for it was to secure com- 
mercial justice rather than freedom which started 
the revolution. 

It is commonly said that Sam Adams held up 
before him such likehhood of preferment in the 
new order that Hancock was induced to risk every- 
thing for its rewards. This supposition became 
more plausible after these emoluments had been 
bestowed upon him than it was in the year when 
Adams is said to have pictured an attractive fu- 
ture for a man whose prominence would lend as- 
sistance to the cause. If Hancock had political 
ambitions Governor Hutchinson could have pointed 
out a shorter road to distinction, and a much surer 
and safer one. What had Adams to promise in 
1775 beyond the chairmanship of a radical club, and 
later of a disputing legislature, and a discordant 
Congress? These honors were the best the coun- 



An Estimate 337 

try could bestow, to be sure, after the command of 
its troops; but John Hancock was too wise a 
tradesman to sell his commercial interests, his 
fortune, and his favor at court for these uncertain 
compensations alone. 

Suppose that his course be matched to another 
theory : that having seen the condition of the mid- 
dle and lower classes in England under a Hmited 
monarchy, and being sensible of the contrast be- 
tween the freedom of American colonists and the 
subjection of home-born Britons, he should re- 
sent encroachments upon long-enjoyed privileges, 
fearing their diminution and any approach to the 
conditions in which the English commonalty passed 
its stolid existence. Moreover, he might equally 
deplore an arbitrary assertion of the right to lay 
burdens upon colonials which had not been im- 
posed hitherto, and to depreciate the compensatory 
privilege of indirect representation in the legisla- 
tive body, unlike that direct method to which the 
colonies had been accustomed. There were also 
under the general charge of unfairness and despotic 
treatment specific allegations, such as were after- 
ward incorporated in the Preamble to the Declara- 
tion of Independence. In an historical novel ^ 
relating to the revolutionary period, the writer 
has placed the statement of these grievances to 
the credit of Hancock rather than of Adams or any 
other precursor of Jefferson. A little of the con- 

» " Cardigan " by Robert W. Chambers. N. Y., 1902, p. 384. 



338 John Hancock 

text may help illumine ^feature of political club 
doings in Boston town in uneasy times. The 
title hero, "Cardigan," is present at the "Wild 
Goose Club" of minute-men captains when: — 

"A fashionably dressed young man approached our 
table. His style of dress was not to my taste — an apple- 
green coat, white silk stockings, silver buckles, and much 
expensive lace at his throat and cuffs. . . . Everybody 
had now taken chairs and formed a semi-circle around 
Mr. Hancock, who leaned against the great centre table 
and said : — 

" ' I am here to submit to you a list of crimes against our 
colony of Massachusetts Bay, committed or contemplated 
by the King of England. He refuses his assent to laws and 
measures for the public good; forbids the passage of laws 
unless suspended in their operation till his assent be ob- 
tained; calls together legislative bodies at unusual places 
to discourage attendance; dissolves assembhes for opposing 
his invasion of people's rights and obstructs the administra- 
tion of justice; makes judges dependent upon his will alone 
for tenure of office and salaries; creates new ofifices to be 
filled by his appointments; keeps a standing army here 
in time of peace independent of civil power; protects its 
troops from punishment for murder; cuts off our trade with 
the whole world; taxes us without our consent; deprives us 
of trial by jury; transports us for trial; takes away our 
charters, abohshes our laws, and suspends our legislatures.' 

" Hancock looked up, holding the paper unrolled. ' Why,* 
he said lightly, * this is no king, but Caesar among his pre- 
torians.' . . . Then with brief inclination he turned and 
left the room. 

"It was not an orator's effort that Hancock had accom- 
plished; it was a mere statement of the truth; yet so skil- 
fully timed and so dramatic in execution that it was worth 



An Estimate 339 

months of oratory before the vast audiences of Faneuil 
Hall." 

The author of this imaginary scene warns readers 
in his preface against taking the novel for history; 
yet like good fiction of the kind it is as valuable 
for illustration as some histories that have been 
written. His portrait of Hancock is as charac- 
teristic as some that have been made of him in 
colors. The charges against the king, which the 
author puts into the patriot's mouth, such as Jef- 
ferson afterward penned, were commonplaces of 
daily utterance, and were more likely to be spoken 
by Hancock and Adams than any other leading 
citizens of Boston, Otis perhaps excepted. They 
were allegations which ought to have moved all 
the aristocrats of the town to follow the chief of 
them in revolt against the stubborn tyranny of 
George the Third. 

To this portraiture by the novelist the following 
personal note by a contemporary may be added : — 

" He will be considered in the history of our country as one 
of the greatest men of his age. How true this may be, dis- 
tant generations are not likely to know. He was sent as 
a delegate to Congress in 1774; and in consequence of his 
personal deportment, and his fame as a patriot, he was ele- 
vated, in an assembly of eminent men, to the dignity of 
President, which office he held when the Declaration was 
signed, at which time he was only thirty-nine years of age. 

*'In June, 1782, Hancock had the appearance of advanced 
age, though only forty-five. He had been repeatedly and 
severely afflicted with the gout, a disease much more common 



340 John Hancock 

in those days than it now is,4^ile dyspepsia, if it existed at 
all, was not known by that name. As recollected, at this 
time, Mr. Hancock was nearly six feet in stature, and of 
slender person, stooping a httle, and apparently enfeebled 
by disease. His manners were very gracious, of the old 
style of dignified complaisance. His face had been very 
handsome. Dress was adapted quite as much to be orna- 
mental as useful. Gentlemen wore wigs when abroad, and, 
commonly, caps when at home. At this time (June, 1782) 
about noon, Hancock was dressed in a red velvet cap, 
within which was one of fine linen. The latter was turned 
up over the lower edge of the velvet one, two or three inches. 
He wore a blue damask gown, Hned with silk; a white 
stock, a white satin embroidered waistcoat, black satin 
small clothes, white silk stockings, and red morocco slippers. 
It was a general practice in genteel families to have a 
tankard of punch made in the morning, and placed in a 
cooler when the season required it. Visitors were invited 
to partake of it. At this visit, Hancock took from the 
cooler, standing on the hearth, a full tankard, and drank 
first himself, and then offered it to those present. Hancock 
was hospitable. There might have been seen at his table 
all classes, from grave and dignified clergymen, down to the 
gifted in song, narration, anecdote and wit, with whom 'noise- 
less falls the foot of Time, that only treads on flowers.' 

"Though Hancock was very wealthy, he was too much 
occupied with public affairs to be advantageously attentive 
to his private. The times in which he lived, and the dis- 
tinguished agency which fell to his lot, from his sincere and 
ardent devotion to the patriot cause, engendered a strong 
self regard. He was said to be somewhat sensitive, easily 
offended, and very uneasy in the absence of the high con- 
sideration which he claimed, rather as a right than a courtesy. 
He had strong personal friends, and equally strong personal 
enemies. From such causes arose some irritating difficulties. 



An Estimate 341 

He had not only a commanding deportment, which he could 
quaUfy mth a most attractive amenity, but a fine voice, 
and a highly graceful manner. These were traits which 
distinguished him from most men, and qualified him to 
preside in popular assemblies with great dignity. He was 
not supposed to be a man of great intellectual force by 
nature; and his early engagements in pohtical life, and as 
the scenes in which he was conversant called for the exercise 
of his powers only in the public service, he was so placed 
as not to have had occasion to display the force of his mind, 
in that service, so as to enable those of the present day to 
judge of it, excepting in his communications, as Governor 
of Massachusetts, to the Legislature. 

"If history has any proper concern with the individual 
quahties of Hancock, it may be doubtful whether, in these 
respects, distant generations will know exactly what manner 
of man he was. But, as a public man, his country is greatly 
indebted to him. He was most faithfully devoted to her 
cause, and it is a high eulogy on his patriotism, that when 
the British Government . offered pardon to all the rebels, 
for aU their offenses, Hancock and Samuel Adams were the 
only persons to whom this grace was denied." ^ 

Suppose that Hancock had been one of the small 
shopkeepers on the side streets of the town, per- 
haps as unsuccessful in business as Samuel Adams 
was, but had felt the injustice of British rule, as 
some Britons saw it ; and that he had joined in 
the early remonstrances against it, no charge of 
what he was likely to gain would have been urged 
to account for his patriotism. It is possible that 

1 Sullivan's "Familiar Letters on Public Characters," — Han- 
cock. See also Gra> don's " Memoirs of His Own Times," Appen- 
dix D, p. 425- 



342 John Hancock 

he could discern the evil^f the time as clearly as 
the wayside tradesman who had little to lose, and 
that his regard for the general profit under a popu- 
lar government would be as great as a grocer's or a 
cobbler's. His large business and great wealth 
naturally stood in the way of revolutionary ideas, 
with their inevitable disturbance of trade and 
finance and the worse conditions which might 
follow colonial failure in a doubtful contest. 
It is, therefore, to his greater credit that, despite 
naturally opposing considerations, he was willing 
to risk everything for the possibility of the country's 
freedom to work out its own prosperity amidst its 
abundant resources. It would be easier for a 
biographer to place Hancock where he deservedly 
belongs if he could say that he was not rich or 
ostentatious or vain. On the other hand, if these 
qualifications to perfection made it hard for his 
class to enter into the new kingdom, additional 
esteem should be awarded a man who could ally 
himself with a doubtful but noble cause which 
promised more for future generations than his own. 
If the possibility of patriotism existing together 
with wealth and social position be looked for, and 
in spite of the probable loss of such advantages, 
abundant examples can be found in the history of 
the nation. In Boston, one instance in particular 
will occur to those who recall what Wendell 
Phillips sacrificed to the '^Httle band of nobodies" 
at the outset of the crusade against an evil which 



An Estimate 343 

early statesmen deplored, but failed to extirpate 
from the Constitution and the Nation.^ From 
time to time there will be men whose sense of wrong 
and vision of right will be greater than of the 
chance surroundings of wealth or the uncertain 
prospect of ambitions as doubtful as were those of 
any conspicuous patriot before the surrender of 
Cornwallis at Yorktown. Comparatively great as 
were the rewards which were thrust upon the man 
who of all revolutionists had the most to lose, the com- 
pensation did not equal what he risked, unless what 
he valued most be counted — the vision of a free 
repubhc under a constitutional government, which 
he was permitted to behold before his death. 

While, therefore, we may smile with his contem- 
poraries at his harmless love of display and of 
oiB&cial position, we may remember also that there 
was a generous side in his almost indiscriminate 
hospitality, and in his sacrifice of time and money 
for the public weal. If he was vain, it will be 
admitted that vanity is a common weakness with 
different location in one and another, visible and 
invisible; and, moreover, that there were many 
provocatives to self-complacency, and numerous 
sycophants to feed and encourage it. If he was 
not a great statesman he at least had the tact 
and patience to manage a discordant assembly, and 
to keep them free from initial disunion, and there- 
fore from eventual relapse into a worse subjection 

» The front doors of the houses occupied by Hancock and by 
Phillips now f»tand sido by aide in the old State Kouse. 



344 John Hancock 

than at first, and to bri4|g them on a part of the 
way toward the beginnings of confederacy, itself to 
end in union. If John Hancock had not lived, and 
had not been the man for a trying position in a 
critical time; if he had not given to a democratic 
enterprise the aristocratic following of himself and 
a few friends who were influenced by his example, 
thus furnishing a tone at which democracy pretends 
to scoff, but inwardly is glad to have as an ally, as 
well as the funds that usually accompany respecta- 
bility; if these adventitious elements had not 
been at the service of a reactionary cause in the 
rebellious town of Boston first, and throughout the 
land afterward, success might possibly have fol- 
lowed in time and through other men. But at 
that day it seemed, and even now seems, that 
another fate awaited disagreeing, half-hearted pa- 
triots ; such as might have befallen them if there 
had been no Robert Morris behind the treas- 
ury and no George Washington at the head of 
the army. Therefore as the shrewd financier had 
a talent for the business side of war, and as the 
other had a genius for miHtary science beneath all 
the imperfections that hypercritical historians have 
discovered, so let it be admitted that underneath 
the purple and fine linen, and despite his chariot 
and six, John Hancock had a true-hearted devotion 
to liberty, inspiring a diHgent, wise, and sincere 
service of his country for its needful union, eventual 
independence, and ultimate prosperity. 



DTOEX 



I 



Acadian exiles, 242. 

Act of Navigation, no. 

Adams, Abigail, 205. 

Adams, John; on Life of Han- 
cock, vii; boyhood, 14; com- 
patriots, 52; counsel for Han- 
cock in "Liberty" case, 112; 
delegate to Continental Con- 
gress, 140; conservative, 155; 
starts for Congress, 169 ; drinks 
Madeira, 174; describes journey, 
175; diary and letters, 176; 
on declaration committee, 182 ; 
concerning Mrs. Hancock, 204; 
advocates Washington for com- 
mander, 189 ; on southern dele- 
gates, 213; his varying senti- 
ments about Hancock, 230; 
vice-president, 296. 

Adams, Samuel; in caucus, 65; 
elected representative, 102 ; 
plots, talks, and writes, 112; 
in town-meetings, 117, 121; 
starts committees of correspond- 
ence, 125 ; Hancock has his por- 
trait painted, 126; leader in 
revolt, 138; part in Hancock's 
Massacre oration, 142 ; locks 
in the Salem Assembly, 149; 
elected delegate to Continental 
Congress, 149; arrives in Phil- 
adelphia, 153 ; field -piece named 
for him, 158; prudence at 
Lexington, 162 ; excepted from 
amnesty, 163; sense of Han- 
cock's value, 163 ; flight to 
Woburn, 166; starts for second 
Congress, 169 ; dislike of parade, 
17s; his new suit, 178; nomi- 
nates Hancock for president, 



178; seconds Washington's 
nomination, 190; defeats mo- 
tion of thanks to Hancock, 
226; loses governorship, 267; 
estrangement from Hancock, 
268 ; opposed to Federal Con- 
stitution, 287 ; finally moves 
its adoption, 288; debt to town 
of Boston, 312; at Hancock's 
funeral, 324. 

Agents, London, 69. 

Allen, Ethan, 170. 

Amusements in colonial Boston, 
S8, 66. 

Ancient and Honorable Artillery, 
158. 

Ancient classics, familiarity with, 53. 

Army before Boston, 186. 

Arnold, Benedict, 170, 238. 

Attire, Hancock's, 78, 88. 

Attucks, Crispus, 118. 

Autograph, Hancock's, 24, 25. 

Baltimore, Congress and Mrs. 
Hancock in, 215. 

Beacon Hill, 16. 

Belknap, Jeremy, 24, 

Bernard, Governor, 105, in, 120. 

Booksellers in Boston, 52, 54. 

Boston, commercial and social, 
45, 67; port closed, 146; town 
records, 23, 312. 

Bowdoin, James, 52, 159, 281, 
282, 283, 284. 

Bows and arrows, Franklin's pro- 
posal to use, 184. 

Braintree, Old, i, 9. 

Braintree town records, 9. 

Brattle Street Church, Hancock's 
gifts to, 131, 326. 



346 



Index 



British Empire in reign of George 
III, 72. 

Brown, Abram English, vii. 

Bun3"an's types in revolutionary 
days, 155. 

Burgoyne, General, 177; his sur- 
render, 214. 

Burr, Aaron, 202, 330. 

Burr, Thaddeus, igg, 203; Mrs., 
daughter of Jonathan Edwards, 
202. 

Bute, Earl of, 74, 75, 82, 83. 

Cambridge, 27, 120, 123, 146, 
156, 193, 295 ; ferry, 146. 

Canada, LoyaHsts in, 242-248. 

Castle William, iii, 121, 135, 170. 

Caucuses, 65. 

Ceremony between Washington 
and Hancock, 295. 

Chamberlain Mss., viii, 108. 

Charleston, S.C, 276. 

Charlestown, 156; ferry, 305. 

Charlotte, Queen, 80. 

Chatham, 97. 

Cheever, Ezekiel, 22. 

Church of England in colonies, 
7, 8 ; clergy of, 243. 

Classics, English, 53. 

Classmates of Hancock, 41. 

College costumes, 31. 

Colonial and national periods, 210. 

Colonial jealousies, 213; senti- 
ment, 92. 

Colony and Commonwealth of 
Massachusetts, 276. 

Commencement Day at Harvard, 
27 ; orations, 33 ; festivities, 30, 34. 

Commerce, colonial, 16; main 
issue at first, 186. 

Commerce of Boston, 47. 

Commercial and political condi- 
tions in 1760, 87. 

Committee of Safety, 145. 

Committees of Correspondence, 
125, 171. 

Common, Boston, 62. 

Complaints against royal orders, 67. 



Concession, American demand for 
royal, 98. 

Concord, 160. 

Confederation, 96; plans and 
schemes for, 94, 209, 214, 229, 

Congress, Provincial, 149. 

Conservatives in revolution, 115, 
180. 

Constitution, Federal, in Mas- 
sachusetts, 285 ; Hancock's sup- 
port of, 286 ; opposition to, 
286 ; ratification of, by small 
majority, 288 ; eflfect of, 288. 

Constitution of Massachusetts, 265. 

Continental Congress, 149; do- 
ings of first, 152; celebrities 
in second, 177 ; indecision, 
181; limitations, 180; compo- 
sition of, 179; deterioration 
in, 212, 238; differences in, 212. 

Continental money, 278. 

Copley's portraits of Adams and 
Hancock, 126. 

Cornwallis, 262. 

Coronation of George III, 80. 

Costumes, 32, 275. 

Cotton, John, 21. 

Curwen's Journal, 174, 248. 

Gushing, Thomas, 115, 125. 

Dancing in Boston, 63. 

Deane, Silas, entertains dele- 
gates, 152. 

D'Grasse, Count, 262. 

Degrees, academic, and honors 
conferred upon Hancock, 42. 

Delegates to Continental Con- 
gress, 149; departure of, 152. 

Democratic and mob element in 
beginning of revolution, 118, 
121, 135, 147. 

Descendant, Hancock had no 
lineal, 328. 

D'Estaing, Count, 250, 252, 261. 

Disagreement among patriots, 123. 

Discontent in Massachusetts, 282. 

Dramatic performances in Boston, 
62. 



Index 



347 



Drinking, 64. 

J )rummond, Governor, 207. 
l")uche, chaplain of Congress, a 
Loyalist, 153. 

East India Company, 134, 136, 149. 
Edwards, Jonathan, 19, 202. 
Eliot, John, 204. 
England, the old home of col- 

onis'^s, 71. 
England's supremacy in 1760, 83. 
English classics not in general 

favor with colonials, 108. 

Faneuil Hall, 55, 60, 102, 115, 

126; Market, 56. 
Faneuil, Peter, 55. 
Ferry towards Harvard, 26. 
Fish trade of Boston, 48. 
Fourth of July, 138, 234. 
Fox, Charles James, 81. 
France in revolutionary war, 250- 

264 ; treaty with, 182, 237. 
Franklin, Benjamin, 19, 97, 104, 

127, 129, .151, 182, 183, 245, 280. 
French aid, 261, 263 ; alliance, 

253; irritation, 258; troops, 251. 
French in Canada, 95. 
Friends of America, 84. 

Gage, General, 146, 147, 156, 

157, 160. 
Gardiner, Sir Christopher, 5. 
Gates, General, 277. 
General Court, 51, 64. 
Generals, first three chosen, 156. 
George II, 73, 74, 76, 82. 
George HI, 85, 103, 117, 134, i57, 

178. 
Gerard, French minister, 1761 
Gorges' claim, 4. 
Greene, General, 250, 258. 
Greenough Mss., x, 43. 
Grove, Mary, 5, 

Halifax, 242, 246. 
Hampshire county, 156. 
Haucock arms, 12 ; genealogy, Z2. 



Hancock, Rev. John, 12 ; Mary, 
13, 42 ; Ebenezer, 76. 

Hancock, John, children, 13, 320 ; 
heir to uncle's estate, 89 ; house, 
14 ; synopsis of career, ix and 
as follows : — 

born Jan. 16, 1737, 13 ; at 
school with John Adams, 14 ; 
adopted by his uncle Thomas, 
15 ; books and reading, 19 ; in 
Latin School, 20-34 ; in Harvard, 
26-43 ; in business, 44 ; in Lon- 
don, 68 ; letters home, 76-80 ; sees 
celebrities and pageants, 72; re- 
turns to Boston, 85 ; taken into 
partnership, 87 ; assumes charge 
after uncle's death, 90; pro- 
tests against Stamp Act, 100; 
rejoices over its repeal, 104; 
gives books to Harvard College, 
107 ; provokes Britain to first 
act of violence in seizure of the 
"Liberty," in; chosen repre- 
sentative to legislature, 120; 
chairman of committee of seven, 
121; selectman, 122; employs 
Copley to paint Sam Adams's 
portrait and his own, 126; makes 
capital of loyalist letters, 128; 
gifts to Brattle Street Church, 
131; appointed captain of Gov- 
ernor's Guard, 132; his part in the 
destruction of tea, 136 ; Massacre 
orator, 138 ; reviled by pamphlet- 
eers, 143 ; wins applause for 
oration, 144; chosen selectman, 
firewarden, and representative, 
145 ; most notable member of 
Committee of Safety, 145 ; not 
delegate to first Continental 
Congress, 150; busy with home 
affairs, 152; president of Pro- 
vincial Congress, 157 ; chairman 
of Committee of Safety, 156; 
omits mention of king in proc- 
lamation, 157; president of 
second Provincial Congress, 158; 
demands field-pieces^ 158; can-' 



348 



Index 



Hancock, John, Continued. 

non named for him, 159; elected 
to second Continental Congress, 
159; in Lexington, 161; a 
lover, 164; ready to fight, 162; 
wanted by the British, 162 ; 
excepted from amnesty, 163 ; 
presence of Dorothy Quincy, 
164; leaves for Congress, 167; 
letter to Committee of Safety, 
169; to fiancee, 171; entrance 
into New York, 172 ; into Phila- 
delphia, 174; credentials, 177; 
elected president of Congress, 
X79; as a chairman, 181; 
appoints committees, 182; chair- 
man of committee on navy, 
183; vexations, 186; equanimity, 
187; aspires to military com- 
mand, 188; disappointed, 190; 
commends Washington, 190; 
oflfers services, 191 ; signs Wash- 
ington's commission, 193 ; elected 
to General Court and council, 
19s; writes to colonial legisla- 
tures, and army officers, 195 ; 
letters to Dorothy Quincy, 196- 
200 ; marriage, 203 ; invites 
Washington to his home in 
Arch Street, 205; attack of 
ceremonial gout, 206; trials as 
president of Congress, 212, 214; 
health impaired, 215; birth of 
daughter, 215; letters to wife, 
218, 219; domestic inconven- 
iences, 221; more letters to 
Dorothy, 223-227; asks leave 
of absence from Congress, 225; 
estrangement from Sam Adams, 
226; arrives in Boston, 228; 
appreciation by Washington, 
232 ; presides at anniversary of 
Massacre, 234; and in town- 
meetings, 234; elected repre- 
sentative, 234; returns to Con- 
gress, 235 ; chairman of com- 
mittee on return of Loyalists, 
239; answer, 243; commis- 



sioned major-general of militia, 
249; leads militia to Rhod^ 
Island, 250; conciliates tha 
French in a critical time, 253 ; 
attack by Stephen Higginson, 
257 ; hospitality to French f.eet 
259 ; in General Court and town- 
meetings, 261 ; representative to 
Constitutional Convention, 266 ; 
elected first governor of Com- 
monwealth of Massac! usetts, 
266; inaugural addres?, 269; 
display of inauguratior. week, 
272 ; furnishing of table and 
house, 274; sacrifices to revo- 
lution, 27s ; urges payment of 
soldiers, 280; health affected 
and resigns, 281 ; representative 
to General Court, 281 ; delegate 
to Congress again, 281 ; Shays' 
Rebellion, 283 ; contrasted with 
Governor Bowdoin, 284; re- 
elected governor, 284 ; reduces 
his salary, 284; president of 
Constitutional Convention, 285 ; 
secures adoption of Constitution, 
286 ; his share in securing union 
of states, 288; re-elected gov- 
ernor, 290; treatment of Gen- 
eral Lincoln, 290; indorses 
complimentary address to Wash- 
ington, 291 ; commends Har- 
vard and education to legisla- 
ture, 292 ; county and towns 
named for him, 293 ; dignity 
and ceremony between Wash- 
ington and Hancock, 295 ; views 
of respective positions, 300; 
asks for reimbursement as presi- 
dent, in vain, 302 ; treasurer 
of Harvard, 302 ; neglects ap- 
peals, 305 ; commends College 
to legislature, 308; offers to 
build fence, 309; presents wine 
to President Willard, 310; 
exchange of compliments by 
College and Governor, 313; 
advocates states' rights, 314; 



Index 



349 



Hancock, John, Continued. 

urges abolition of slavery, 316; 
opposes lotteries, 317; and the- 
atres, 318; would enforce ob- 
servance of Lord's Day, 319; 
his misfortunes, 320; contends 
for rights of Commonwealth, 
321; Constitution of United 
States amended in consequence, 
322 ; final address to legislature, 
323; death, 323; eulogy by 
Dr. Thacher, 325 ; memorial 
voted by Commonwealth after 
one hundred years, 327; dedi- 
cated, 328 ; place in history, 331 ; 
inherited traits, 332 ; value to 
cause, 334; estimate of charac- 
ter and services, 343. 

Hancock, Mrs. Dorothy Quincy, 
wife of John, 164, 165, 167, 168, 
199, 200-205, 215; letters to, 
215-228, 235, 329. 

Hancock, Mrs. Lydia Henchman, 
wife of Thomas, 15, 16, 20, 90, 
161, 164, 165, 167, 199, 202, 204. 

Hancock, Thomas, uncle of John, 
15; bookseller, 16; builds man- 
sion on Beacon Hill, 16; founds 
professorship at Harvard, 18; 
adopts John, 44; store by the 
drawbridge, 54; sends John to 
London, 68; letters, 69; ad- 
mits John to partnership, 87; 
gout and death, 89; bulk of 
estate to John, 89; books left 
to Harvard, 108, 303. 

Harrison, B., 213. 

Hartford, 16, 170. 

Harvard College, 18 ; degrees, 34 ; 
diet, 38 ; dress, 39 ; laws, 35 ; Ufe 
in, 28; studies, 34,36; Hancock 
treasurer of, 302. 

Hawley, Joseph, 106, 113, 117, 123, 
125, 151. 

Hawthorne, 60. 

Hebraic Uterature, 19; names, 46. 

Henchman, Daniel, 15, 54. 

Higginson, Stephen, 124, 254, 311. 



Holyoke, President of Harvard, 32. 
Honors for Hancock, 122. 
Hospitality, Hancock's, 104, 259. 
Hutchinson, Governor Thomas, 66, 
118, 124, 126, 145, 146, 312. 

Independence, assertion of, 237; 
declaration of, 182 ; predictions 
and prophecies of, by French and 
English, 97 ; transition from 
demand of reform to, 185 ; slow 
movement towards, 185, 187, 
211; struggle with loyal senti- 
ments, 95. 

Indians, Stockbridge, 19, 184. 

Individualism, colonial, 210. 

Insurgency, i-io. 

Intrigues, 238. 

Jamaica Plain, 112, 131, 321. 
Jealousies, colonial, 211; in Con- 
gress, 179, 186, 213. 
Jefferson, Thomas, 151, 182. 

"King Hancock," 91. 
King Street, 49. 
King's Chapel, 8, 21. 

"Laco," 254, 311. 

Lafayette, 250, 261, 263, 295, 310. 

Latin School, 20, 21, 22, 25. 

Latin to be spoken, 41 ; familiar- 
ity with, 52. 

Lecture, the Thursday, 27, 62, 66. 

Lee, General Charles, 176, 185, 238, 
250. 

Lee, R. H., mover of Declaration, 
182. 

Lennox, Lady Sarah, 80. 

Letters by John Hancock, 42, 76, 
77, 78, 79, 85, 92, 99-103, 107, 
130, 136, 169-173, 195-198, 200, 
205, 207, 215-227, 235, 295, 298, 
305, 309. 

Letters of loyalists, 127; in Han- 
cock's hands, 128. 

Leverett, President of Harvard, 25. 

Lexington, 22 ; British losses at, 167. 



350 



Index 



"Liberty," the, Hancock's sloop, 
loi, no, 112, iig, I20, 177. 

Library, Hancock's, 109. 

Lincoln, General, 283, 290, 

Lotteries, 312, 317. 

Lovell, James, 22; John, 22, 57. 

Loyalists, 59, 139, 141, 186, 238, 
248, 279; letters of, 127, 

Loyalty, 67 ; professions of, 98, 
103, 105, 155, 157. 

Lumber trade, 47. 

Madeira wines, 56, no. 

Magdalen Charity, 86. 

Mall, the, 62. 

Mansfield, Earl of, 74, 104. 

Marchant, Henry, 176. 

Masonic fraternity in Boston, 64. 

Massacre, the Boston, 118, 121, 133, 
138. 

Mather, Cotton, 22,53; Increase, 68. 

Merry Mount, 3. 

Militia called out, 160. 

Misapprehension of American sen- 
timent, 185. 

Mobs in Boston, 146, 147. 

Montague, Admiral, 125. 

Morton, Thomas, 2, 4. 

Mother country, colonials love for, 
180. 

Murray, James, 243. 

Musters of m.ilitia, 63. 

Oil trade, 88, 90. 

Olive branch commission, 237. 

Oliver, lieutenant-governor, 129. 

Oppressive measures, 147. 

Orations, Commencement, 40 ; Mas- 
sacre, 138. 

Oratory of Revolution, 144. 

Orthography of the period, 91. 

Otis, James, 107, 113, 114, 117, 
124, 126. 

Patriotism, Hancock's, 99. 
"Packett, the Boston," 88. 
Parties, revolutionary, in America 
and England, 118. 



irartisan warfare, 244. 
Peerage for Hancock, doubtful, 

124, 191. 
Percy, Earl, 22, 249, 329. 
Petitions to the king, 155, 186, 187. 
Philadelphia, arrival of delegates 

in, 153, 174; the Hancocks in, 

204, 215. 
PhiUips, Wendell, 342. 
Pigott, Sir Robert, 250. 
Pitt, WiUiam, 74, 75, 82-84. 
Popularity of Hancock, 156, 191. 
Pormont, Philemon, 21. 
Port Bill, 147, 151, 304. 
Pownall, Governor, 69, 70, 71. 
Prescott, Richard, 249. 
Prices of provisions, 61. 
Province House, 60. 
Punitive measures, 147. 
Puritan divines, 52. 

QuiNCY, Dorothy, 126, 164, 167, 

177, 199, 200, 223, 225. 
Quincy, Edmunjd, 9, 164, 199. 
Quincy, town of, 11. 

Randolph, 178, 182. 

Reading, colonial, S3 ; Hancock's, 20. 

RebeUion, New England declared 
in, 157- 

Reconcihation urged, 187. 

Rehef sent by other colonies, 147. 

Representation in Parliament, 146. 

Repressive measures, the five, 147. 

Revere, Paul, 161. 

Revolution, beginning of, 112. 

Revolutionary radicals, 115. 

Rhode Island and Massachusetts, 96. 

Rhode Island first to choose dele- 
gates to Congress, 148. 

"Richard III" in Boston, 318. 

Rights and grievances, declaration 
of, 126, 154. 

Riots, 102, 105, 283. 

Rochambeau, Count, 261, 262. 

"Romney," the frigate, in, 119. 

Ropewalks and revolution, 48. 

Rum distilling, 48, 266, 315. 



Index 



351 



Salem, 149; Congress at, 156. 

School books, Hancock's, 23. 

Scott, Captain James, 329; 
Madam, 329, 330. 

Separatism, 210. 

Sewall, Judge, 10, 19, 72. 

Ship building, 47. 

Shipping, colonial, 45. 

Signature, Hancock's, vii, 24, 183. 

Slavery, colonial, 182, 266, 285, 315. 

Slave trade, 47, 134, ISS- 

Smuggling, 55, 119. 

Social diversions, 59. 

Sons of Liberty, 66. 

South, the, 246. 

South Carolina, 154. 

South Church, Old, 60. 

Sports, 62, 63. 

Springfield, 193, 276, 283, 297. 

Stamp Act, 94, 95, 100, loi, 103 ; 
repeal of, 104. 

State House, 51, 321. 

States' rights, 210, 265; sover- 
eignty, 285, 294. 

Steuben, Baron, 264. 

Storm, the great, 251. 

Sugar trade, 48. 

Sunday observance, 58. 

Taverns, 63, 64. 

Taxation, 84, 85, 96, 133. 

Taxed tea, 133. 

Tea, destruction of, 146. 

Tea drinking, 62, 63. 

Tea, duties on, 135; use of ab- 
jured, 134. 

Tea plot, the, 66. 

Theatrical performances, 317. 

Thursday lecture, 27, 58. 

Ticonderoga, 170, i77- 

Tories, 103, 116, 122, 239, 241, 
242, 244. 

Tory element in Congress, 181. 

Tory troops, 244; view of revo- 
lution, 240. 

Town House, 50, 60, 115; fre- 
quenters of, 52. 

Town-meetings, 50, 135. 



Townshend, 105. 

Trade, New England, 87; sus- 
pension of, 155. 

Transfer of authority from royal 
governor, 157. 

Treason, 116. 

Troops in Boston, 114, 115, 147. 

Union, groping towards, 211; 

beginnings of, 155 ; plan for, 154. 
Union with Great Britain, schemes 

for preserving, 95, 237. 

Vandalism, 66, 327. 

Vassal vs. Commonwealth, 321. 

Veazy, Lieutenant, 8. 

Vergennes, 263. 

Virginia, legislature, 178. 

Walpole, Horace, 74, 80. 

Warkworth Castle, 329. 

Warren, Joseph, 65, 113, 120, 138, 
ISS, 161, 187. 

Washington, professions of loy- 
alty, 155 ; offers to raise a 
regiment, 15s; nomination to 
be commander-in-chief, 189; let- 
ters to Hancock, 192, 206, 231 ; 
declines his invitation, 207 ; 
intriguers against, in army and 
Congress, 237; visit to Boston, 

295- 
Westminster Hall, 75. 
Wharf, Hancock's, 49. 
Wharves, 49. 
Whigs, 115, 122, 239. 
Wilkes, John, 81. 
Wines, 17, 115. 
Winthrop, John, 21. 
Wolcott, Governor, vii, 328. 
Wollaston, Captain, 2 ; Mount, 2. 
Worcester, 156, 169, 170, 29s. 

Yale, gives degree to Hancock, 42. 
Yorktown, 223, 235 ; surrender, 262. 

"Z. Z.," the Tory maligner of 
Hancock, 117. 



OCT 9 19^2 



^-^-^ ■% 






^■^^ % 



..^^"^. 



** 









vV 






,\v •", 



- S s>^ 



f;%o^ 



.y'%- 






.^■^ 



^ 



> ,0 






^^^- 
.^^' '^^- 



%- 



.>^^ '^ 



.>' 






■f 






°0 ,P' V 



^'; ^0^';^^^^'^^^ 



-y^ 



^ ^ ^. ^.1^ 






'/- ' 8 I \ 



^ %^ 



1%, ^ 



^^■■\ 






O » '/-t^ 






.0 o 






'^^ V^ 



-S^^-^ 



% ^^ 



^^. % 






'X**" ., 



t> "bo^ 



'-^^ ^ 



*,'=.■' 



. '^o. 



.-'^■/-^'jr 



^: 









'^^^'V 



